From The Ashes of Remnants
by Temple Light
Summary: Redeemed by his final sacrifice, Anakin Skywalker finds himself reborn on the world of Remnant. As he attempts to pick up the pieces of his shattered soul and rediscover his purpose, forces from the shadows threaten to bring his now peaceful existence to sunder. Will Anakin find the strength to defend the light once more, or is his destiny still dominated by darkness?
1. From The Ashes

**_Star Wars and RWBY are not my personal works. All rights owned belong to LucasFilm Ltd., and Rooster Teeth. This work exclusively exists as a passion project and a celebration of two phenomenal worlds._**

* * *

"You cannot hide forever, Luke."

Darth Vader stalked the landing beneath the platform of the Second Death Star's throne room, searching for his son. Had he been told that fate would lead them to cross blades with one another, father against son, he'd have told the messenger he was daft. Stars, had he even been told his son was alive just 4 years ago, he would have choked the person to death on the spot for sharing such a cruel joke to his face. Yet here his son stood before him, or at least he should be. Were he not hiding himself away in the dark.

"I will not fight you, Father."

Luke called back. His voice was calm and steady, but his fear of the violence awaiting them both rang true. Against what Vader could only imagine to be the advice of everyone of his allies, his son had come to convince him to bring himself back to the light. To free him. To save him. Just like her.

'_He is so much like you, dear.' _Vader thought to himself, a feeling vaguely akin to pride began to well in him, before he stuffed it back down the dark pit where his heart had once been. There was no place for that here.

He wasn't blind, he knew what the dark side had costed him. His wife, his family, his body, his very identity. He threw them all away in a vain attempt to prevent his wife and children's demise, and all he had to show for it was his wife's tomb, a shattered body being held together by the galaxy's most ironically punitive battle armor, and a broken promise to raise their children together. But it was all he had left, and after Padme died with their children, nothing else really mattered. He had lost his will to live, and subsequently his ability to care for the consequences of his actions. For many in the early years of it's reign, the Empire, with Vader as it's enforcer, had brought many things. Hope; Fear; Security; Tyranny; Stability; Autocracy. For Vader, it had brought nothing but suffering.

But things had come to pass. After several decades, rebellion had swept the galaxy, and with it a conflict that began as isolated insurrections, had conflagurated into outright civil war. Vader could have predicted much of the conflict's underpinings, there were plenty of enough fools who'd grow angry enough at Palpatine's shock doctrine tactics to believe that reviving a corrupt system like the Old Republic was a preferable alternative. What he couldn't predict was the discoveries that this rebellion would lead him to. Padme's offspring had not perished. In fact not only was he alive, but he had grown into an accomplished warrior in his own right. Not only had his master lied to him about his children's survival, but kept the dark lord from discovering him until he had already joined the fight against his own father. If only he had found the boy sooner. If only they could have fought alongside each other…

There was no time to contemplate what ifs, not when he needed his focus in the moment. As of the moment, the only things that mattered was himself, his son, and Palpatine. No matter their differences, he and his son could both agree on one thing: Palpatine must die. For the sake of the galaxy, their family, and every person who had suffered as a result of this pointless and catastrophic war and the war that it followed, the sith lord who dubbed himself Darth Sidious must perish. The only problem was, no matter how he looked at it, only 1 man was going to be able to leave this throne room alive. As much as he wanted to believe otherwise elsewise, he knew deep down he would not be able to bring himself to to kill Luke. Not after that day on Mustafar, not after seeing his son willingly attempt suicide over joining him, not again. What's more he knew he did not have the strength to face Palpatine alone, and with the threat of his son removed, it would only be a matter of time before the Emperor disposed of him too in search of fresher blood. Only his son would be capable of carrying the task of seeing the great manipulator succumb to the fate the Empire had casted many of it's damned souls to.

However, Luke was not ready to face the Emperor. Though strong in the Force was he, and exceedingly quick to learn, the boy was still barely at a level comparable to where Vader himself was at the beginning of the Clone Wars. It would be beyond foolish for him to face the Emperor on even ground, and if Luke was any bit as stubborn as his parents, his foolish faith in the Jedi ways to protect him was going to get him killed. If he was to defeat Palpatine, he needed to be able to overwhelm the Emperor's defenses with sudenty and totality, before the sith lord's greater mastery of the Force could come to bear. There was only one path he'd get the strength needed fast enough to end this conflict.

"Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way to save your friends."

He couldn't help but muse at the irony of his situation. Twenty three years ago he stood in the same position as his son, only the sith lord then was foolish enough to believe the young Vader's rage would unbalance him. Vader had no such illusions. He knew what he was attempting would almost certainly mean the death of him, but it would mean his son would have the strength to lure Palpatine to the grave with him. What's more Luke had the benefit of something no Sith carried with them. Not Palpatine, nor Vader himself in years: Compassion. He could see now Luke was too much like his mother to let the Dark Side rob him of that essential part of him completely. He could grow to be strong, decisive, and uncompromising; As any Sith should be. However, he would also be kind, empathetic, and understanding as well. In time he would master the Dark Side, and use its power to bring the Galaxy back to order, but he would never allow himself to be so foolish as to adopt his Master's delusions of rule by fear and terror alone. He could free slaves, put a stop to the discord that Palpatine had encouraged throughout Imperial society, and show the Rebels that their efforts to topple the Empire were a misguided waste of the entire galaxy's resources. Slowly, but surely, he knew his son would be able to mend the Galaxy's wounds, and make the Empire a better place for all of its citizens. Now, he needed the boy to embrace that destiny.

It was at this moment that Vader had opened a door in Luke's mind, as he searched for memories of allies he could use to provoke his son with.

"You're thoughts betray you, son. You're feelings for them are strong, especially for…"

As Vader probed his son's mind, he felt glimpses of a familiar face. It was the princess of Alderaan. A romantic attachment, perhaps? No, it felt different, the bond felt something much more akin to family. Like the one he had shared with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka a lifetime ago. And it ran so much deeper. But that was be impossible, that would make no sense. The only way that such a bond could exist, was if she was his-

"Sister…" behind the mask, Vader's face twitched with intrigue and, to a lesser extent, terror. The young girl he had interrogated on the Death Star, was his daughter. A small part of Vader's being quaked with the desire to throw himself down the reactor shaft as the full ramifications of what his actions towards the princess came to face him. He would not let that voice prevail. Not now. Not when he had been provided a final trump card to get Luke to let go of his self-control.

"So you have a twin sister." Vader continued, as he felt the terror spreading to his son too.

"Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure was complete." He murmured, his vocator had done a sufficient job of disguising whether he was sneering victoriously or lamenting that his discovery has now likely doomed another member of his family to the manipulations of Sheev Palpatine. He wasn't so certain of the line between them himself. What he was certain of was that the stakes were now so much greater than just his and Luke's survival: His entire bloodline was on the line.

This was it. This would either be the moment Luke either saves the Galaxy and his family, or dooms them all to the Emperor's machinations. Vader knew his son would hate him to his dying for what the dark lord was about to say, and his daughter would never forgive what he has done. But he had long made peace with the fact history would remember him as a villain, and he was prepared to die a villain to even his family's eyes, as long as the man who had stolen everything from him will not rule a day longer. Such was the conviction of Darth Vader.

"If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then… perhaps **She** will."

"NEVER!" His son roared. His emerald blade sprung to life, as he began delivering a powerful Djem So swing to the dark lord, fully intending to cleave his father across his rib cage. Vader had expected the boy's power to swell, but it was beyond anything that he could have imagined. Every swing his son took may have been little more sophisticated than a reckless street thug with a durasteel pole, but the sheer speed and strength of the boy's blows forced him to step back against his son's onslaught. Vader for the first time in decades, was being driven back. And what feeble attempts at a counterattack he could muster where swiftly parried. As the fight was brought to the elevator bridge, he dodged another one of his son's blows. However he had mistimed his footwork as his movement led him to accidentally step onto his own cape, forcing him to lean on one of the railings for support. But Luke's assault did not seize. He pounced on the Dark Lord's moment of weakness, slamming the crimson blade with a falling avalanche strike over, and over again. It was only the high powered servos of Vader's prosthetics that prevented his sword from falling out of his hand outright, though it meant very little, as Luke finally broke through his defenses and cleaved his saber hand off,shattering the phirken guard rail he was resting on in the process. A cry of shock emerged from Vader as he collapsed onto the floor, defeated by his tormented son.

In the distance, he could hear the Emperor cackling with sadistic euphoria, as Luke held the blade towards his father's throat. This was it. Vader knew this moment was coming. It was just like then, too. He could hear the Emperor goading his son to finish the job, but inside his helmet he smiled too. Sure, his fate was now sealed, but Palpatine would not live long enough to enjoy his victory as he was cleaved along with his apprentice. If all of this was what it took Vader to have his revenge for Padme and himself, he'd die with no regrets. Vader closed his eyes with content, and awaited the final blow. Except the blow he expected never came. Instead as he opened his eyes, he found Luke staring at him, and he back at Luke. Then his son closed his eyes, released his breath, and turned off the lightsaber.

"Never."

Vader watched in shock as his son tossed his lightsaber to the side of the room. What the hell was he doing?

"I'll never turn to the dark side. You failed your highness!"

Luke turned to stare down the emperor, his face filled with newfound determination.

"I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

Those simple words reverberated through the halls, as both Palpatine and Vader stared at the spectre of the boy. Standing in front of him, the naive child who had left Tatooine on a fool's quest to rescue a princess he didn't know all those years ago had vanished. The boy whose spirit was shattered in the crucible that was the fateful duel on Cloud City was gone. In their place, a young Jedi stood before them to defy the Emperor's expectations and Vader's own. What astonished the defeated lord the most however, was the person Luke credited as the man he strived to be. It had not been Yoda, nor Obi-Wan. It was Vader, or at least, the man he used to be. Despite everything he had done to both his son and the galaxy, Luke still strove to live up to the legacy of the man he had once been a lifetime ago. Beyond that, the young boy had succeeded in more ways Vader could have ever hoped to, now or then. For the first time in a very long time, he felt something more than self-loathing and apathy. He felt pride. Genuine pride for the man his son had grown into. Oh how he wished Padme could see what their son had become.

The feeling was short lived, and his blood went cold as the Emperor's rage began to emanate throughout the room. His master was beyond livid at Skywalker's defiance. The boy had humiliated his latest magnum opus, and Vader knew the emperor to be a temperamental maestro. He braced his heart for what comes next to those who disrupt his "masterpiece".

"So be it, Jedi." His master seethed, as he began to raise his hands.

"If you will not be turned, you will be DESTROYED!"

The cry of pain only took mere seconds to elicit as an opening volley of Force Lightning was unleashed upon Luke. The young Skywalker had feebly attempted to put up a Teutomenis defense to protect himself, but inexperience and the raw power of the strike prevented him from developing a sufficient defense. Vader numbly watched in horror as his Master continued to torture his son. His body lifted itself off the ground and moved towards his master, Almost as if the Force itself was commanding it to bear silent witness to his child's demise. Vader felt the dark hole where his heart used to be being stretched and torn in every direction, all the while a voice he had been attempting to suppress began to scream into his head to save his son.

Vader wanted nothing more than to save his son of his torment, but his feet and body were frozen with fear. If he even attempted to stop his Master, Palpatine would destroy his life support with the barrage, and then force Vader to watch him destroy everything he had left to love. For it was not enough for his adversaries to suffer if he was not there to watch them writhe every ounce hope and joy from his victim. Such was the Emperor's cruel sense of vengeance, as Vader had come to know intimately over the past 23 years. And so as the Master tortured the child with devilish delight, and the child begged for his father's safety, Vader could only watch in terror and shame as his child; Padme's child; the last symbol in the galaxy that love had once existed in his heart was snuffed from existence. What little hope had been reborn in his heart had been smothered out.

* * *

"_Ani, I'm pregnant"_

_Anakin's mind and face flushed as he heard the words spoken by his beloved wife. His mouth opened and shut as he attempted to find the correct words to express how he felt. _

'_A child? Now?'_

_How should he react? What could he say? How should he feel? What did he feel even? Angry? Happy? Scared? Excited? Nervous? It was difficult to say. His emotional state had just been transformed into a whirlpool of confusion by those three simple words._

"_Th-That's wonderful. Just- wow." Anakin began to stutter out, before Padme caught him in between words._

"_What are we going to do?" Padme asked. Though her voice remained steady, her fear and trepidation were clearly evident on her face._

_If Anakin was being honest, he hadn't the faintest clue of what they were going to do either. The council would certainly never accept him if they found out he had fathered a child. Even if he was clueless about a lot of politics, he knew that Padme's career would be jeopardized if anyone found out she was pregnant, much less married. There was so many factors that neither he nor Padme were ready to face yet. So many challenges they weren't prepared to even think about, much less prepare for._

_And not single bit of it mattered for Anakin in that moment. Finally finding his words, he spoke:_

"_W-we aren't going to think about it. This- This is a happy moment." _

_A genuine smile breaks across his face, as he embraced his wife once more._

"_The happiest moment of my life."_

_And for that simple moment nothing else mattered. Not the war. Not the Jedi, nor the Senate. The Republic, or the Separatists. It was just Padme, Anakin, their love, and the __child soon to come. It truly was the happiest moment in his life._

* * *

As Vader emerged from his memories, the barrage suddenly stopped, and his son was left to writhe in the after effects of Force Lightning. A sadistic grin crept upon his master's face as he made his final address to the boy.

"And now young Skywalker… You will Die."

The barrage returned with renewed strength, and Luke's suffering was such he no longer could form a coherent response as he howled in agony. Vader looked between the boy and Palpatine, as he remembered why he allowed himself to become Palpatine's beast all those years ago. He had done it to save Luke. To give his child the life fate never allowed himself to enjoy; a family with a mother and father, free from slavery and misery. Instead all he had provided for his son was orphanage upon a desolate wasteland, forced to fight his family to the death in a war that was not of their making, and now to perish at his master's feet.

"Father!"

"No." He had failed to save his mother. He had failed to save Padme. But he would not let Palpatine steal his family from him a second time. He would not let another loved one be buried before him ever again. As anger and apathy gave way to love and familial instincts, His sulfur eyes transformed to piercing blue. Like a phoenix from his ashes, the man who had once been the "Hero with no Fear" had returned once more.

"NOOOOOO!"

Leveraging the strength of his cybernetics, Vader hoisted the emperor over his shoulders, and began to carry the man across the room. Despite Palpatine's inability to align a direct strike at vader with his lightning, Stray bolts had managed to arc into Vader's suit. The pain was excruciating, but Vader soldiered on. His life support was shot, and his joint servos were beginning to spasm violently under the barrage of the electrical storm above him, but adrenaline and determination allowed him to carry his master to the edge of the reactor shaft. Releasing a rapturous roar, Vader heaved the Emperor over the edge, and watched as Palpatine fell to the Death Star's reactor core. A brilliant light burst from the depths of the reactor as a nebulous stream of midi-chlorians enveloped the room, as if it was trying to purge itself of the emperor's remains before they could be corrupted any further. Then as quickly as it had appeared, the clouds began collapsing into the depths of the shaft once more.

It was over.

As the dark lord collapsed onto the railing, he could feel the veil of the Dark Side upon him lift itself, and found himself at peace. He had done it. He had no more masters left. There were no more Hutts that could beat him. No Watto to berate him. No Jedi to chastise him. No Sith to manipulate him. He had himself, and his own free will to choose his life as he desired. At long last, after 49 long years, he was finally free.

No sooner had Vader made this realization did his exhaustion finally overtake him as he felt his form collapsing into his son's arm before he slowly drifted out of conscious.

* * *

Vader woke up in a haze, as he felt himself being dragged across the floor. His optical and audio sensors were badly damaged, but it was clear from the sounds of Alarms blaring and panicked men crowding about searching for any TIE or shuttle lying about that he must have been pulled to one of the many hangar bays on the station, and the station itself would soon not be of this world. Good. The universe did not need another one of these monstrosities in its wake. Vader looked upon his son as the boy struggled to carry them both to the shuttle they had arrived at the station on merely an hour before. As he attempted to breath, he found his breath was labored and tiring. His life support had failed. It would only be a matter of time before his time in this world would cease. As his son rested him upon the ramp of the shuttle that had carried them mere hours before, he decided to voice his final request.

"Luke, Help me take... this mask off."

He could see the disbelief on his son's face through the damaged optics his mask was still providing.

"But you'll die."

For the briefest moment, he considered the possibility of listening to his son. If he kept the mask on, he would be able to survive for a few hours longer. Plenty of time for him to receive the medical attention he needed. But then what? The Alliance would never accept him back, not after everything he had done under Palpatine. No, the best he could hope for was a swift trial and humane execution for his crimes. All the while, Luke would be helpless to watch as his friends murdered his father before his very eyes, unable to save him from their wrath. He would not put his son through that, not when the galaxy needed the boy's strength and commitment more than ever.

"Nothing can stop that now. Please, let me see you… with my own eyes."

Vader saw his son slowly nod in solemn acknowledgement of his request as the latter began the process of removing his mask. First came off the armoured helmet which helped to hermetically seal his head from the rest of the world. With even greater apprehension, the boy proceeded to remove the mask, allowing the two to see each other's true face for the first time. Luke was immediately taken by the litany of scars across his father's face, not merely by their multitude, but by the quality of them. These weren't scars of battles hard fought, but those of someone who was physically tortured in ways he could not even begin to describe as anything but being roasted alive. Another piece of the puzzle as to who his father was had been filled. For Vader, the most striking thing about his son were his eyes. Those piercing sapphire eyes, so much like his father's, but so better tempered by the angels of his mother's better nature. The stories he wish he could convey to his child of her. Stories he no longer had time to tell.

"Now… go my son. Leave me."

Vader could see his son shake his head in disbelief, the same way he had as his mother died in his arms many years ago.

"No! I have to get you out of here. I have to save you!"

Vader softly chuckled as his lungs began to fail on him, and looked up to his son one final time, as he expressed the words that he had wished his own mother had lived long enough to convey to him all those years ago.

"Y-you already, have Luke. You were right."

Vader felt the first sign of tears as his vision began to fade to grey. The spectre of his son becoming increasingly hazy, as the boys own tears fell onto his face.

"You were right about me. Please, tell your sister… You were right."

He had wanted to say more, but he had no more strength left to speak. His eyes began to roll back.

"Father?"

Panic overtook Luke as he noticed his father begin to slump onto the ramp.

"I won't leave you-"

And with that, Vader's soul began to leave his body. Before departing, however, he left one final message for his grieving son through their bond in the Force as it began to erase itself for good.

'_I am forever proud of you, my son. May the Force be with you, always.'_

It was all too much for the boy to take.

"FATHER!"

* * *

*Chirp* *Chirp* *Chirp*

The sounds of birds and wildlife, greeted a Vader as he woke up under the shade of one of many great trees in the surrounding forest. Where he was exactly, he couldn't be sure. Was it Endor? No. The wild life sounded similar, but he could not sense the presence of the local ewok tribes anywhere. Moreover, he couldn't sense his son. That brought a renewed sense of urgency. Stretching his perception across the planet, he could sense the presence of cities, villages, and towns, each likely bearing thousands, if not millions, of inhabitants in their own right. Though he could not sense the presence of any starships, wherever he had ended up clearly had developed a sufficient degree of civilization. No matter how hard he extended his senses however, his son's signature was nowhere to be found. Where in the Force was he? He shook his head as he attempted to steady his breathing, nothing was going to come clearer if he was-

His eyes widened. he was breathing. He closed his eyes once more, and tried to hear the passing of air through his respirator, only to hear the sounds of his natural breath. He pressed his hands against his mask, only to be met by two more startling discoveries. The mask was gone, he was feeling his real face for the first time in decades, and his hands… they were his real hands. Noticing a nearby stream, he bolted to it, and attempted to glean into his reflection. Though the currents made it difficult to get a clear image of his face, what he had found startled him. The marks of his immolation were nowhere to be found. In fact, if Vader was being earnest with himself, he looked as he had shortly after being knighted. Even his clothes were the same colors as before. From the near blackness of his robes, to the dark maroon of his tunic, to the darkest leather of his boots. Even his obi was decked in the same utility belt, and as he examined it, almost all of his standard equipment attached to it. The only thing missing was-

"I swear he was here! I'm not making this up!"

A voice cried out from the distance behind him, distinctly young and feminine in tow.

"Uh huh, Rubes. You mean to tell me you just found some dude out here in the middle of the woods while you were practicing, just completely passed out? With not a scratch on him?"

An incredulous voice replied back. The person was feminine as well but noticeably older, and it carried itself a considerable amount of charisma and confidence. It reminded him all too much of a certain bastard Correllian hot shot. What's more, the sounds of their footsteps were getting closer to his position.

"You saw the imprint on the grass where he was lying, Yang. He was totally there!"

"Well he certainly made quite the_ Impression_."

"Yang, this is serious! He could be in big trouble for all we know, what if he got kidnapped?"

"Then why'd ya leave him there Ruby? You carry that scythe gun of yours pretty much all day, how hard could carrying a person be for you?"

He could sense the irritation coming off the younger voice of the two from that comment.

"First off, her name is Crescent Rose, and _she _deserves respect. Second, the guy was like a head and a half taller than me and built like a soldier, you try lugging someone like that for five miles."

Vader couldn't help but chuckle at the two's bickering antics. It was clear that the two were very close to each other. Best friends perhaps, or maybe even relatives? It was painful to admit, but something about their interactions reminded him of his relationship with Obi-wan and Ahsoka oh so long ago. What was even more painful for to admit, now that the darkness no longer clouded over him, was how much he wished he had it back.

"Look all I'm saying is-"

'Yang' was quickly interrupted as 'Rubes' began to shout out.

"Wait I see him Yang!"

Vader turned around, to see the source of the voices standing only about 10 steps away from him staring at him. Their eyes met each other, as sky blue orbs was met with silver and lavender. The air had grown uncomfortably tense.

"Well, he seems to have been able to clean up after himself." Yang uttered, in a failed attempt to alleviate the tension.

"I uh, take it you were looking for me?" the former dark lord addressed.

"K-kinda," The younger of the two stuttered out, before steadying herself. "We found you passed out in the forest, so we were about to carry you to our house at the edge of the woods. It's kind of dangerous to be this far out with the Grimm all around if you're not a huntsman, much less without a weapon."

So they were attempting to give him shelter. That was more kindness than Vader had been given in decades from anyone, save for his son.

"Well I thank you for your kindness, but I should be off." He politely bowed, before preparing to saunter off. Only to be cut off by Yang.

"Hold it. Now I know we may both look young, but I've seen wandering eyes before. Do you even have somewhere you can go right now?"

She raised a good point, Vader didn't really have any connections on this world. As far as he knew transportation off world was likely going to be problematic. If he was going to survive, shelter was something he was going to need to find.

"I-" he sighed, "Not really no. Not anymore."

"What happened?"

Vader considered how much of the truth he should actually tell. 'Hi, I'm a mass murdering psychopath, who terrorized half the galaxy. I was recently redeemed by my son and chucked an evil space wizard who enslaved me to do his bidding down a reactor shaft, died and then woke up 20 years younger on an unknown planet.' didn't sound like a plausible, or efficacious way of introducing himself to complete strangers. Vader disdained dishonesty, but it would appear that he would need to debase himself to adopting his former master's patented strategy of 'amending the truth'.

"M-my village was destroyed by a group of rogue soldiers. They slaughtered everyone. I was one of the few who survived. I-I maybe the only one who survived. I've been on my own ever since."

It was technically true at least, if you ignore the part where he led said group of rogue soldiers. Judging by their expression they seemed to have bought it.

"I-I'm so sorry." Ruby said, as she offered a hug to him. Vader for his part kindly lowered Ruby's hands down for her.

"I… appreciate your condolences."

A quiet silence built between them once more, though it only lasted for a minute before the young girl finally spoke up.

"That settles it, then."

"What do you mean?" Vader asked, not sure exactly what she meant by "settled".

"You're coming back with us!"

He blinked twice, not quite comprehending what the young girl had suggested. Judging by his sister's expression, she was just as bewildered as they both exclaimed their dismay almost simultaneously.

"Wait, What?"

"You said you got nowhere to go right?" Ruby spoke plainly, as if the conclusion was a matter of fact "Plus those bad guys might still be looking for you. You'll be safer with Dad and Uncle Qrow then with anyone else."

"Ruby…"

"You said it yourself Yang, he's lonely. Which means he needs a friend, And friends don't leave other friends in danger." she stared up at the blonde with pleading eyes. "Right?"

Yang sighed, unable to argue the validity of Ruby's concern for the man. The elder girl looked towards him.

"Well I guess it depends on what you want now. Want to come back with us?"

"I-I don't even know what to say."

"Say yes." Ruby pleaded, her silvery eyes looked as if they were threatening to water as he stared deep into them. "Please."

Vader attempted to resist her efforts of persuasion, however his reflection of his current predicament coupled with Ruby's frustratingly effective bargaining tactic eventually wore down his defenses. Besides which, he was too mentally exhausted to muster an argument either way. He took a sigh before finally, caving in.

"Okay. I'll go back with you."

Instantly, Ruby's face had brighten up, as a grin that threatened to split her face open appeared on her face. The young girl quickly sped to receive what appeared to be a high five from what Vader was becoming increasingly convinced was her 'sister'.

"See, puppy eyes will always gets everyone to do your bidding."

"So is that why Dad had you cleaning the bathrooms last weekend, after you spent our meal allowance for that weekend on cookies?" The blonde inquired, knowing it would only serve to aggravate her sister.

"Shut up Yang."

Vader followed along as the two began to lead him out of the forest. Surprisingly, most of the time was spent walking in silence. Not that he minded, after thing that had happened in the last however long he had been out since what should have been his death, he hadn't had a lot of time to reflect on what had happened to him. Here he was, casted into a realm unlike he had previously experienced before. There was no Luke, no Rebellion, no Empire (at least in and so far as he knew). No Jedi. No Sith. Just him. About halfway into their journey, Ruby paused her step, causing the group to halt.

"What's wrong Ruby?" the former dark lord asked, wondering what could be on her mind.

"I just realized I forgot to give you back something."

She reached around into her coat's pocket, and though she fidgeted with it for sometime trying to dislodge it from it's hiding place, she finally recovered a very familiar cylindrical object.

"I didn't mean to steal it. I just needed something to prove that you weren't something made up. Please don't be mad at me."

It was his lightsaber. Not the one he had used as Palpatine's enforcer for over 20 years, but the weapon he had created after the beginning of the clone wars. The very weapon his son had carried through most of his training, and fought with at their tragic duel at Bespin. What's more it appears to have been free of the modifications Luke had made during his own ownership of the weapon. No it was just as he had originally designed it, with the golden activation switch cover still attached to the side of the activation box.

"There was also some writing on the bottom of it, but I couldn't read what it said."

As he looked on the bottom of the hilt, he noticed an inscription engraved in aurebesh. What he had read nearly brought him to tears.

'_Everyone is capable of wrong, young one. But it is only the bravest of us who choose to face those wrongs and commit to doing better. Make the most of your new life._

_-Master Jinn'_

Vader had not considered Qui-Gon Jinn, in many, many years. Upon his descent to the dark side, he had done his best to expunge nearly all memories of the man, not wanting to live with the guilt of how far from the man's trust in him he had fallen and failed to live up to. He didn't need more shame weighing on his shoulders then he already possessed. Yet despite all that he had done, even from beyond death, the man's faith had persisted for him well beyond what should have been deemed reasonable. He had helped to give the former dark lord a second chance, and Vader would not take his first teacher's faith for granted again.

"We never got your name by the way." The blonde inquired, curious to know the identity of the supposed young man they were bringing back to their home.

Vader considered their query. Who exactly was he supposed to be now? He wasn't a jedi anymore, but he certainly wasn't possessed to return to being a Sith either. In fact, the title of Darth Vader was one he'd rather leave behind for good, and never hear of again. This left him with only name he could claim. But he could be that man again? Of that he wasn't sure. But he would try. He would try to be the man his son and his first teacher had faith in him to be, and though neither of them would be able to see the strides he make, he will never forget the efforts they made to give him this chance. Day by Day, he will work at it. And maybe one day, as he continues to do his best by others, he may rediscover what it meant to be him again.

"It's Skywalker." He finally spoke "My name is Anakin Skywalker."


	2. A New Life

**Chapter II: A New Life**

* * *

It has been several months since Anakin's initial arrival on Remnant, and it had been a rather eventful several months as well. Starting with his initial introduction to the sisters' home. Their father was an amicable fellow, though it was clear that his nonchalance and laid back attitude towards most things had left a very impressionable image on his eldest daughter. Not the least of which was his insufferable (especially for his youngest daughter) fondness for "Dad jokes", which only he, and to the surprise of everyone else, Anakin could appreciate. Maybe it was something that came with men of age.

Then there was his introduction to Qrow Branwen, the Uncle of the two sisters, a few weeks later. The man was, by Anakin's own estimation, a complete and utter trainwreck of a human being. From the story's he would tell of his journey's, coupled with the fact that he seemed to spend every other minute taking a sip from his whiskey canteen, Anakin had surmised Qrow as being a reckless alcoholic whose willful disregard for his own safety had miraculously not costed his life on account of his raw tactical and combat acumen. Yet for all of his character faults, it was clear the man had a very deep love and sense of commitment to his family, in particular for Taiyang's youngest daughter. Anakin had been suspicious as to why their bond seemed to resonate so strongly, but had ultimately chose not to press the subject. The family's history, as he had discovered early on in his stay, had been one laced in tragedy. Yang's mother had divorced Taiyang shortly after their daughter's birth, and Ruby's mother,... well she had suffered the same fate Padme only a couple of years later. Anakin knew better than perhaps anyone at that table how deeply those wounds run inside one's heart. He was not about to callously interject himself into a matter that was truly none of his business to speak on. Especially of those who were kind enough to provide him a home to stay in during his time in a new world.

As his stay extended, he had found himself bonding with the sisters on a surprisingly regular basis. Usually this meant joining them for their training and monitoring their sparring sessions, though he occasionally swapped places with one of them if they got tired. It served as a good excuse to test his new body's limits in any case. However his decades of combat experience, much less his own inherent precognition made such spars a pretty one-sided affair, even with their semblances on full-burn. As a result the girls had made it something of a competition between one another to see who would take down Anakin first. It was one he found himself surprisingly willing to oblige.

Then there was the time when Ruby had asked him to show her how his lightsaber operated. Initially he had refused, saying the thing was dangerous, but damn him that her puppy eyes technique was not effective on his recently unfrozen heart. The very second he had ignited it's sky-blue blade, Ruby's eyes were lit with wonder. No weapon on Remnant she had ever seen was as technologically advanced or sophisticated as his saber, which was truly saying a lot given the technology she had spent countless hours engineering into the design of Crescent Rose was as close to the cutting edge for small arms as you could get legally. After demonstrating a brief kata and deactivating the blade, Anakin was immediately met with a barrage of questions ranging from how he built it, to the materials used, to the complicated mechanism used to hold the plasma that formed the blade in place. It was at this point Anakin learned about Ruby's uncontrollable interest in the field of engineering, particularly weapon design. Having developed a passion for droid and starship mechanics at an early age himself, he couldn't help but see a small part of his younger self in the girl as they spent the next hour or so discussing each other's weapon's design in exhaustive detail.

It was towards the end of this conversation, that Ruby had asked him if he was going to become a hunter like she was training to be? Judging from the redhead's own description, the hunters were something of a decentralized militia. Men and women tasked with using their gifted talents called semblances to keep the peace and staving off the grim on the outside from encroaching on populated areas. It reminded him almost too much of the Jedi. Sure they may not have been as doctrinally rigid as his old order had been, but after the amount of blood he had spilled since joining the order and then leaving it for the Sith, he no longer wanted to participate in that sort of task. Skirting the more ethically dubious of his answer, and any discussion of the Force, Anakin told her of the Jedi, what it was life was like for those in the order, the temple, and it's fall. He also made it explicitly clear why he didn't want to return to that kind of lifestyle. Though Ruby was indeed disappointed by his refusal, she was thankfully understanding of his reluctance to do so.

That did bring the question, however, of what exactly he planned to do. To be truthful, Anakin was not sure. As charitable as Taiyang had been, he knew couldn't afford to be idling on the man's good graces. But what could he possibly do? He had been a warrior for nearly his entire existence, a life without a front to fight on had become almost unthinkable for him. What was a warrior to do, when there were no more wars to be fought?

Fortunately for him, it was during this time of self reflection, that Yang was planning to send in her gauntlets, for which she had dubbed the pair as Ember Celica, for maintenance with the local weaponsmith. Normally custom weapons like hers costed a considerable premium for such maintenance, but it was a price the family had been willing to pay until that point. Anakin, seeing an opportunity to repay the family's charity, offered to do the maintenance work himself. Upon returning the gauntlets, not only were the gauntlet as good as new, The simplification of the weapon's firing mechanism he had performed had removed an awkward jamming quirk in the design that had made mobility assists from the weapon's firing an unreliable, and sometimes even risky proposition. The results had so thoroughly impressed the Xiao Long household that they had suggested to him that he might make a sizable profit as a weaponsmith in his own right. To be truthful, Anakin was somewhat hesitant at the idea, but upon thinking about it further he found the idea wasn't so unattractive. Tinkering, building, and creating new designs, be it for droids, weapons, or starships had always been a relaxing activity that helped to ground him during some of the more tumultuous periods of his life. Besides which, any weapon he would work on, would be unlikely to be used for warfare, merely for those attempting to keep the peace. In a way he could save lives, without ever having to pick up his own blade again. The very next day, he announced his intentions, and with the help of Taiyang and Qrow, he opened his first shop.

The eponymously named _Skywalker Ranch_ became something of a runaway success. Since it's opening, By now he had been requested to repair and redesign 36 different hunters' weapon systems, 17 personal armor set overhauls, and (by strange request) 6 engine refits for the local air service company. All to stellar reviews praising his work for quality, affordability, and reliable and responsive communication with his clients. He wasn't alone in it either. Ruby, when not busy with school or her training with Qrow, would donate her time to helping Anakin manage his ever increasing workload. It was almost like having another apprentice with him again. Almost…

It hurt sometimes, thinking about his old life. No, Anakin did not miss the terror and fear he once inspired in his enemies as Darth Vader, he did not enjoy the lies and deceptions that he had to live with in being the emperor's enforcer, nor the harm he had caused so many. He wished so desperately that he could just forget the atrocities he had committed, both in the Emperor's name and his own ambitions. But he did miss what he had left behind; the things that he will never have the chance to see. He missed Luke, and the opportunity to see him develop into a wise and indeed powerful master as he restructured the Jedi Order for the better of not just itself but the galaxy as well. He missed his daughter, for whom he partially wished he had not seen as his enemy until but the very end of his life. He missed Ahsoka, and wished so desperately for the chance to beg for her forgiveness after failing her time and time again. A chance he now will never have. He missed Rex, and the banter they used to share as they charged through the hellzone that every battle of the Clone Wars had been. Hell he even missed Obi-Wan. For as much of a moralizing, selectively duplicitous son of a dug as his master had been, he had, contrary to his beliefs for years, been loyal up to him to the very end and had protected them from Palpatine's influence. Begrudging as it was to admit, he was grateful to his master for sparing them from such a fate. If only he could told the man he once called his brother that.

Most of all though, he missed Padme. Even now, there was not a day that goes by where her death has not haunted his waking existence. No matter how many years have passed, the memories of their final meeting on Mustafar continue to taunt him with the memories of his failure and his hubris. How much he would give to take it all back. To take up her offer leave everything behind. To tell her how deeply he was sorry for everything he had done before and after her death. Anakin miserably chuckled, no matter how much things have changed, the more they stayed the same.

Shaking his head, He redrew his focus back to his latest project. The client had been rather scrupulous about presenting their identity, leaving him with only an obvious pseudonym, the weapon needing service, an address to deliver the weapon back to, and a timeline to complete it under. Normally Anakin would just return such requests back to sender immediately, but the weapon's design had caught his eye. The general makeup of the weapon took the shape of a rapier, but there were some uncharacteristic design choices from a weapon that was usually left untouched by the aristocrats who wielded such weapons. Among which was the inclusion of the dust revolver that had been integrated at the base of the blade, and overlapped the section where the sword's tang would usually cross into the hilt. The sides where color coded, likely in an effort to minimize the chance for accidental dust contamination by the user. Initially Anakin's immediate concern was that the structural integrity of the blade had been compromised by the chamber's location, and indeed the blade had been significantly banged up and bent at several sections along its length. However several factors pointed against this theory. Upon testing stress testing samples of the alloy used in the blade, he had found that the blade had a little less strength then the metals Ruby had used for Crescent Rose, but they were lighter and more flexible, Allowing the blade to undergo severe stress without permanent damage. In addition, the weight and shape of the blade suggested that the user fought with a mentality that was far more Makashi than Ataru or Djem So. This suggested that the owner of the blade had to have been fighting something significantly outside the blades original design parameters for this kind of damage to have occurred.

However, the blade was only the first part of the issue he had with the project. After the blade had been reforged, the next issue on the list was the dust chamber. The original swing-out mechanism for the chamber had been damaged as well, and without it, the user would not be able to alternate cartridges much less reload the chamber. Ordinarily this would have been an easy replacement, had it not been for the fact that each part of the mechanism were controlled by an internal circuit board, which meant without a copy of the board he would have to redesign the control circuits from scratch . This would have taken time, and time was not something he had enough of.

* * *

_Anakin had lost track of how much time he had spent inside of the shop, and the effects had begun to take his toll. He had studied kinetic weapon designs during the Clone Wars, but the mechanisms that enabled the rapier's chamber to function was completely bewildering. Fifteen prototypes to replicate the revolver's original mechanism, and everyone of them had failed to live up to his expectations. With only 6 days left to complete the build, everything was a race against the clock, and Anakin was failing to meet his deadline. He hated failing. He was so frustrated by the lack of progress, he nearly tossed his blueprints at the wall when Ruby came into the room._

"_You okay Anakin? You've been down here for like two days." She asked as she entered the room, a plate of warm choclate chip cookies in one hand and a glass of cold creamy milk. As a courtesy she offered the plate of treats to the former knight._

_In an effort to save face, he loosened his grip on the papers, and accepted one of the sugary snacks from her plate before dipping it into the milk and taking a bite. The milk really did compliment the flavors of the treat._

"_I'm fine Ruby. just frustrated…" _

"_Any reason in particular?"_

_Anakin sighed from exhaustion._

"_It's this damned slider mechanism. The entire thing is integrated into the chamber' revolver, but the integrated circuits controlling the thing are completely fried."_

"_Have you tried just hot wiring it?" She asked._

"_Tried it, but there is no way to fit the wires into the blade without compromising the blades integrity even further."_

_Ruby remained quiet, as she watched Anakin continue to tinker around at his desk. The young girl watched as her mentor used the heat to bend a nearby coat hanger to help him vent his stress. That was when inspiration struck._

"_THAT'S IT!" She screamed out, startling the former knight, and nearly causing him to stab the sodder in the process._

"_What's it, Ruby?"_

"_We can hinge the chamber at the base of the blade. Then we don't even to deal with the circuits; the whole thing can operate mechanically!"_

_Anakin was surprised at Ruby's insight, but it did sound like a feasible solution. Still…_

"_What about the integrity of the blade? wouldn't the hinge compromise the weapon's safety?"_

_Ruby shook her head._

"_Not if you design a good locking system. See?"_

_She lugged Crescent Rose onto the design table in it's rifle configuration, disengaging the automated hinges so that she could manually demonstrate the locking mechanism on her weapon._

_"I did the same thing on my girl here, see? As long as you reinforce the locations where it'd have to withstand the most stress, it should be fine."_

_Anakin looked it over for several minutes, examining Crescent Rose, and examining the hand guard which housed the swords chamber. Finally, he smiled proudly at her. This project may have been saved yet._

"_You know what I think you might have got something here."_

* * *

After several revisions of the locking mechanism design, they modified the hand guard to implement the new hinge mechanism into the rapier, and returned the dust chamber back into its original housing. To ensure the weapon's quality they ran a series of trials with the weapon, each more demanding than the last last, and each time the rapier passed with flying colors. Having completed the last of their trials now completed, the last step they had to take was to get the sword polished, and ready to ship. As it was, Anakin just wanted to take a final look at the final polish he had done for the build before shipping it back.

"You think they'll like it, Anakin?" Ruby asked. It wasn't so much that she had a lack of confidence in her skill building weapons, but this project had been the most demanding project they had completed to date, and it had taken a considerable toll on Anakin in the process.

For his part, Anakin gave a confident smirk to her. In his eyes, this had been one of their finest works yet.

"I think someone would have to be pretty dumb to say we did a bad job."

Ruby couldn't help but smile at that reassurance. Still, she couldn't help but wonder what sort of person would use a weapon like this. Was it was some kind of aristocrat or royal family type? If What kind of person were they like? Were they bad people, who'd say and do cruel things to those who'd get in there way? Were they like the characters from her favorite childhood tales: honorable and chivalrous; ready to fight to the bitter end for those who needed their protection? Ruby wondered indeed. Soon enough though, Anakin brought her out of her thoughts as he placed his hand on her shoulder; The rapier slung directly over his shoulder.

"Come on then let's go and get this thing sent out."

Perhaps his new and simple life was going to work out alright for him after all.

* * *

_Greetings Everyone! Temple here. I forgot to say this last time, but welcome to my latest narrative adventure. I hope you all have enjoyed what you have read so far. I know this chapter is both significantly smaller, and significantly less plott heavy than the last chapter, but as I was rewriting this chapter after losing the original version, I thought it would be a good idea to ground where Anakin's life had normalize to when we first see our cast in Volume 1, as well as to provide additional justification for some of his behavior later on in the story. Anakin at this point does not wish to return to a warrior's lifestyle, and though he's happy to leverage his experience to help Ruby and Yang prepare for their own journey towards becoming one. He's not looking to become one again. However I think we all know, that simply is not going to last forever will it? ;) Until the next chapter, please leave a comment tell me what you've liked and don't like. Every review helps me to improve and perfect my craft!_

_See you all soon!_


	3. Gingers, Ails, and a Nightclub Brawl

Chapter 3: Gingers, Ails, and a Nightclub Brawl

**Wow, 3 chapters in. This is a first for me. Sorry it's taken me a bit longer to write this chapter, but I've not written action in over a year, and I'm afraid I was getting soft on the amount of fluff I was consuming in my diet. None the less I am happy to present the latest chapter I in our grand adventure. I hope you all will enjoy it!**

It was shortly after they arrived back from the post office, that they received the news that Yang had been accepted into Beacon Academy. To say Yang was a little excited about this revelation, was akin to say sheing had a modest sense of humor for puns. Regardless of her taste in humor, it was indeed a moment to be celebrated: First with a family outing to one of the most popular family restaurants in Vale, than with even more training. The little dragon was more than eager to prove she had what it took to be at Beacon, and she was doubly convinced that it won't happen if she wasn't at her absolute peak. As a result every week she spent after finishing school work, had been spent with Anakin and Ruby preparing herself for her practical exam. A schedule that only intensified after her graduation from Signal. Which also meant a lot more sparring sessions. A lot more.

The biggest problem with this, you might ask? That was simple.

Yang Xaio Long does not understand the concept of light contact.

By the end of the second month, Ruby had all but resorted to clinging to her Uncle Qrow's legs to avoid being punched through an entire section of the forest whenever she accidentally removed so much as a strand from her sister's voluminous mane during their spars. As much as Anakin would like to laugh it off as the young girl getting cold feet, he had enough bruises to warn him that sparring an enraged Yang was about as advisable as petting a hungry Krayt Dragon. Still, against the backdrop of all the suffering he himself had caused, it did make for a good exercise in karmic justice.

In the meantime, his commision work for Skywalker Ranch's service had only managed to compound in that time. Ruby was happy because it had given her an easy out of sparring with her increasingly irrant sister, and Anakin was taking advantage of the commissions to learn more about the technology Remnant had to offer. During one such project, as an attempt to stave off the monotony of his regular commision work, he decided to take his hand at building a vibrosword out of the technology available on Remnant; something that could mimic the activation and deactivation process of a lightsaber, while still retaining the physical blade. After several arduous weeks, of assembling, wrecking, and rebuilding, he finally was able to assemble a prototype for the sword.

When he showed it to his usual "apprentice", she was quite clearly by the quality of his first home built. The sword's edge took the length and form of a classical bastard sword, perfectly balanced to switch between one and two handed use. Though lacking the telescoping function needed to retract into the hilt, the prototype blade itself was an exquisite piece of work. Forged of the strongest alloys that Remnant's Metallurgy could promise, it's edges embodied the naval blue hues of twilight, While it's core shone with the effervescent glow of moonlight. Encrypted into the blade's fuller was a silver script completely alien to Ruby's worldly knowledge. When asked what it had meant, Anakin transcribed "From the Darkness returned the Light.".

The sword's hilt was given equal care and attention in their designs. As was the case of his many own designs, there were some common elements retained. Six segmented grips were installed at the hilts base to reinforce the user's lower grip, an activation box to initiate the blade's function, and auxiliary controls towards the end of the hilt that acted as a backup activation for the weapon, as well as providing additional setting controls. He also took the opportunity to modify some of the elements from his previous iterations to better match the new dimensions of his hilt. The grips were streamlined and flattened compared to his previous iterations, to reduce any uncomfortable digging of the grip into the user's palms and fingers, and the activation box was rounded and slimmed down to improve ergonomics. Perhaps the most radical deviation, from both his prior designs and even conventional designs, was the inclusion of a tsuba as opposed to the traditional cross guards of the blade. While testing a few of his prior sword commissions, he had found that the cross guards had made many of his techniques cumbersome to perform, and had a tendency of snagging onto his wrist and forearm during orbit rotations. The tsuba, he found, provided more than sufficient coverage for his hands, and gave his wrists plenty of free range to pivot his blade at any angle of his choosing.

The result was a weapon that was both uniquely suited towards the redeemed one's skillset, and a reflection of his journey and outlook on life. After several minutes, Ruby had finished inspecting the prototype. While there were some minor critiques and suggestions on how to implement a telescoping feature to improve the weapon's portability, she beamed with satisfaction at his only question was what name would it be christened with. It was a question Anakin had yet to answer for himself, as he was taught in his past life that such practice would signify an attachment to the material. However after recalling a figure from the local mythologies of Remnant he had studied, Anakin finally drew a name for it that he felt suited it well: _Lucifer's Atonement._ The name had confused Ruby. Why would Anakin name such a meaning-filled weapon after someone so universally considered evil. Was this how Anakin saw himself? Did he see himself as some kind of devil? She had read once that survivor's guilt often led to its victims believing their survival was an affront to morality itself. Perhaps this was Anakin's way of coping with that guilt.

She had no idea how right and wrong she was at the same time.

It was also around this time that someone began to unceremoniously rap against the door.

"Hey ya'll, mind if I come in?"

"Oh sugar honey iced tea!" Ruby yelped, before bolting out of the side exit of the garage, presumably to escape into the depths of the nearby woods where her sister would not be able to find her.

Today would not be her day to die.

Sighing in exasperation, Anakin placed the sword back into a makeshift scabbard before using the force to close the door Ruby exited from, as Yang simultaneously began to enter the room with.

"Huh, where's Ruby?"

Anakin for his part struggled to settle on a believable alabi.

"Uh nowhere special, I think she mentioned something about Qrow though."

Yang looked questioningly, before sighing and simply shaking her head in resigned acceptance.

"I swear, that girl is practically attached to you and Uncle Qrow's hip nowadays."

Her eyes softened a bit,

"You don't think she's scared of me do ya?"

Anakin was tempted to mention how the sisters' last sparring match had resulted in them digging Ruby out of a 10 foot hole after one of Yang's punches had sent the poor girl careening into a nearby grassy hill. However he decided to forgo bruising the bruiser's ego further, to lend some gentle advice.

"Nah, of course not Yang. I think she's just… a bit concerned she's not able to keep up with you."

Anakin, motioned Yang to sit next to him at his work table, as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"I know you want to do well at Beacon, Yang. I just think you just need to relax a bit about it. You're more than ready for whatever trials they got for you."

She turned to face away, as her emotions began to slowly bubble to the surface.

"It's more than just about Beacon, Anakin…."

"Than what is it? You know I'm here for you and Ruby, right?"

Yang remained quite for several minutes, as she thought about what she wanted to say next. She knew Anakin wouldn't buy any excuse but the truth. The guy had an almost supernatural sense when it came to reading others. She also knew Anakin wasn't about to just let this go now that she had opened herself up to "that" issue. Still it wasn't something she wanted to have discussed in her home, where her father might attempt to eavesdrop. So she decided.

"Tell you what, you can ride into town with me, and I'll tell you a bit about what's up. Sound good?"

Anakin was perturbed by Yang's quite obvious deflection, but he wasn't going to be any closer to finding out what was on the brawler's mind by refusing. Besides which, with the sun setting soon, they would likely be arriving into Vale well past dusk, and he was sure Taiyang would enjoy the extra piece of mind knowing that his daughter was a little less likely to get into trouble with someone watching out for her.

"Deal." he raised his hand to hers, and the two shook each other vigorously before unwrapping Bumblebee from her protective wrappings.

* * *

Anakin Skywalker hated motorcycles.

Okay, hate maybe a strong word, and after 23 years as Darth Vader, he was a lot more hesitant to allow himself to register such emotion. But compared to the swoop bikes he had driven at various points during his younger years, these things were absolute death traps. Sure a swoop bike could travel much faster than these wheeled monstrosities could ever hope to achieve, but at least a swoop bike had repulsor lifts. That meant, with the right amount of skill, avoiding obstacles and surviving a canyon jump was as simple as overclocking the repulsors to avoid ending up as an explosive pile of paste. Not these things. Noooo, that would be too generous to manufacture. Instead he had to pray to the Force that the suspension system that was supposed to support the weight of himself and Yang on the bike would compress enough to absorb the force of them crashing down from a steep hill without causing them to rebound face first into the ground at over 120 kilometers per hour. That or trip itself over a rock and/or pit in the road. All the while travelling on a path so narrow you wouldn't even be able to fit a podracer through along it's full width, much less the specific travel lane you were supposed to travel within. All of this on top of Yang's thirst for "enhanced riding", Anakin couldn't help but ponder if this was the Force's way of punishing him for his lesser transgressions of scaring the daylight out of Obi-Wan with his piloting.

Stars, he missed his brother.

Before he could devote more time to that thought, Anakin felt the bike come to a halt somewhere well within the city. When he looked up to where Yang had taken them, a deep frown formed on his face. The sign read _Junior's Nightclub and Hideaway_.

"Yang, when you asked to come with you to town, I assumed you were wanting to come here to clear your mind. Not walk yourself into a damned cantina!"

"It's not a cantina, Anakin, it's a nightclub. Totally different."

"Yeah and I'm pretty sure your bike's technically qualifies as a tricycle." He sarcastically bit back, "What are you thinking, Yang?! You've been doing nothing but punishing yourself to get ready for Beacon, are you seriously going to throw it all away just so you can drink your troubles out now?"

"It's not about the drinks, Anakin!" She yelled back, a hint of scarlett passed across her irises.

"Then what is it about? Because it's clearly not about the school anymore!"

"It's my Mom, OKAY?!"

Anakin blinked in surprise at her outburst. He had not expected this to be brought up.

"Your mom?"

She nodded numbly as her rage gave way to the melancholy she often suppressed below the surface.

"You know how Dad said she left after I was born, right?"

He nodded quietly, refraining from talking until she was able to speak her piece.

"After Ruby's mom,... you know, i tried looking for her. I've actually been looking for Mom for a long time you know. At first I just wanted us to have a complete family again, you know? And then…"

She stifled a sob from erupting from her throat, as she looked into Anakin's eyes.

"I don't expect you to understand what that's like Anakin. What it's like to not know if you're parents are still out there; if there alive or dead. If they loved you, or hated you, or just didn't care."

Anakin was quiet for sometime before he finally spoke.

"I understand, Yang."

"Sure you do."

"Ruby told you about the group i was involved with. The Jedi, right?"

Yang nodded in acknowledgement, though not really seeing Anakin's point.

"When I joined the order, I had to leave my mother behind."

Yang looked at him in shock. He had never mentioned having family before, much less his mother.

"Everyday I was worried that something was happening to her, but my master kept telling me that everything was fine. Eventually, I got tired of hearing it was "just fine". So some years later, I tried to go back and find her. When I finally did, she had been kidnapped by bandits. They had beaten her so badly,... I-I didn't make it in time."

Even now, after all of these years, the memories of that traumatic night brought bile to his throat. He remembered it all, the sights, the smells, the sensation of her mother's soul escaping her body into the Force,... and what transpired soon afterwards. Yang was speechless, seeing a man who seemed nearly invincible in life to be so overcome with grief.

"Anakin…"

"I resented my master for a long time after that day, for not letting me find her sooner. I knew it wasn't really his fault. He couldn't have known what was happening, but... Even now it's difficult for me to let go of what happened." Anakin continued, as he brought his guilt ridden eyes to meet the troubled blonde.

"I don't want that to be your fate either, Yang."

"Then what do you want me to do?" she choked out, full expecting to hear him ask for them to return home.

"Let me help you here, Yang. Don't go down this path alone, because trust me, it will destroy you."

He raised his hand to meet her's.

"Deal?"

Yang looked between his eyes and his hand for what felt like an eon before she buried her face into his shoulders with a crushing embrace. The former knight was taken off guard, but quietly returned the embrace with a little less back-breaking pressure than she was giving.

"Thank you."

"Thank me when we find out where your mom went, yeah?" he replied back, punching her arm lightly, which earned him a chuckle and a pair of knuckles to his shoulders back.

"Come on let's head inside."

* * *

After successfully navigating the bouncers, a feat that proved relatively easy with a subtle application of force-enhanced persuasion, the duo was greeted to the sights of the club life. with bright lights strobing against ivory floors that contrasted against the steep black walls surrounding it. The room was further broken up into two sections with the dance pit occupying the majority of the space, and an alcove on the perimeters where the bars stood at both the ground floor, and the balcony area just above it. In the mess of it all, people could be seen dancing, drinking, negotiating. It was certainly less dirty than some of the other drinking pits Anakin had found himself in over the years, but a cantina is a cantina, is a cantina. After the first 20 or so you walk into, you've basically seen them all. Which also meant that beneath the veneer, was another "wretched hive of scum and villainy" as Obi-Wan put it. That last thought put yet another sour taste in his mouth.

"So what's the gameplan?" he elected to ask his partner in crime, hoping she had thought this through.

"Well it'd take to long to ask everyone about Mom, and I have no idea who the regulars are. So I figure our best bet is to hit the bars. If she's been here, they would know."

Anakin looked at her skeptically.

"Are you even old enough to go up to a bar, much less ask a bartender for favors?"

"Anakin, Anakin. I've got these…" She cupped one of her breasts and lifted it slightly for emphasis, "Who's going to question my age with them? Better yet, what guy or girl could possibly resist my charms or my bod?"

"Me." He replied with deadpan seriousness, "specifically because I know who ever is dumb enough to touch them is asking to be hospitalized."

She clicked her cheeks, before pointing her finger at him with an almost trademark wink.

"Damn straight! I call tall and bearded over there, he's the owner of the place. you get second floor."

"Remember we're here to find where your mom went, not cause trouble, you hear!"

"Oh come on, would I ever?" She replied back with an all to familiar smirk he used to give his master.

"I have a bad feeling about this." He muttered to himself, before taking the staircase. As he ascended up the staircase, he relooked over the profile of Yang's mother that she had sent to his scroll on the way in. The image of Raven Branwen was eerily similar to her daughter, the only distinctions being her raven-dark locks, with crimson eyes that lacked the slant that her daughter and father shared. Beyond that photo, there was little us to go on besides her name and a brief history of the family that no one else needed to hear. As he exited the spiral staircase, he continued to carry his scroll in his hand as he sat himself at the bar. A man in his thirties, with a thick handlebar mustache and dressed in a vested shirt and tie came to greet him.

"What can I do for you sir?" He asked, with a strong accent Anakin couldn't quite place.

"I'm looking for a woman named Raven Branwen, have you seen her by any chance?"

Hoping to ensure the identity of this women stuck, he placed his scroll on the countertop, with Raven's image on full display for the bartender to see.

"Branwen? You'd have better luck in Anima looking for 'er, That tribe don't travel this far out west."

"Why is that?"

"Their bandits! Can't exactly hitch a ferry when you've been caught lootin' and beatin' can ya?"

So Yang's mother was apparently a glorified tusken raider. Somehow both Qrow and Taiyang had failed to mention that kind of detail, and Anakin was suddenly understanding why talk of her was kind of hushed. He would need to talk with them both about this later.

"So she's never popped in here." he asked looking to confirm.

"If she has it sure has hell hasn't been on my floor. Now would you like something to drink?"

A dead end, of course it would be. He sighed out his frustrations, before collapsing the scroll and placing it back onto his utility belt.

"Something dry, please…"

"Sounds like a job for some gin and tonic. Be just a moment."

It was at this time someone else moved to join the bar, though Anakin didn't bother to look and see who had approached the bar. The Bartender seemed to recognize him however.

"Ah, there's my favorite librarian boy. How's that new job at Tom's I got you, yeah?"

"It's dull, uninteresting, and the only customer I and Tom saw all day was a homeless girl with just enough Lien to purchase the latest copy of Ninjas of Love, and a bag of chips to spare." The man replied dryly, before his voice broke into a wry smile. "All in all, a perfect start to a new life if you ask me."

There was something about that voice that was too achingly familiar to Anakin.

"That my friend, is a pick up line from hell." The bartender chuckled, "For all of your suave and charm, you sure go out of your way to be the dullest sod possible."

"Yes well I think I've lived an exciting enough lifetime to afford being a 'dull sod'."

It was far too familiar for comfort.

"A pity you feel that way as young as you are." The Bartender shook his head before returning to face his favored customer. "Well deal's a deal, you get the job, I get you the strongest brandy I've got on my shelf. Let me finish your neighbor's goods over here and I'll hand out yours."

Anakin let his suspicious nature finally get the better of him, and allowed his head to face his newest companion at the counter only to be stunned by what, or more correctly who he saw. His face was even more youthful than their first meeting all those years ago on tatooine, though his auburn hair was in the same cut he had remembered it during their final years as friends. Even without the robes and the ridiculous beard only he would insist looked good on him, There was no doubt in Anakin's mind who this man was.

"Obi-wan?"

The man's head spun almost immediately, his eyes equally wide with shock.

"Anakin?"

The two stared at each other, as if the two were each seeing the ghost of a relative. Their mouths stuttered simultaneously as they both attempting to find the words to ask each other. What could they say to each other? "I'm sorry?", "I wish I had listened to you?". They had their entire time on Remnant imagining what they'd wish they could say to one another to convey the guilt and burden of responsibility for failing one another; each believing that day would never come. Now that they were face-to-face, for the first time in years, how could they even begin to believe what they were seeing was real. Much less explain themselves for all of those lost years and opportunities to set things right.

"W-what are you-?"

A giant crash with the sound of shattering glass and screaming bystanders filled the club and interrupted the reunion. Anakin knew something was going to happen.

"E chu ta, that karking…. YANG WHAT DID YOU DO?!" he screamed out at his charge as he ran out to the balcony.

"He wasn't talking, and he was coming onto me! What did you want me to do?!" She shouted back at him.

"HOW ABOUT NOT LAUNCHING THE OWNER THROUGH A GLASS COLLUMN!"

It was at around that point that both Anakin and Yang realized they had attracted the attention of the owner's guards, almost all of whom were armed with either axes or firearms.

"Oh, oops..." Yang feigned a sheepish response, before engaging _Ember Celica_ into battle mode. As quick as her first bullets were chambered, they charged at the two with everything they had, with Obi-Wan now helplessly caught attempting to dodge the axes being thrown and cleaved in every direction. This was not how he wanted to spend this evening.

Anakin was even less amused at the situation.

"Either I'm going to kill this kriffing idiot if we get out of here alive, or her dad is going to kill us both when he finds out about this." He growled out, as he juggled between containing his rage at his current predicament and brawling with the 20 or so armed goons sent after him and Obi-Wan; Backs against each other, without so much as a broom between them to stave off the asault.

"Could you perhaps contemplate adding to your list of homicides **after** we aren't being threatened with mutilation?"

It was 'nice' to see his master's impeccable sense of sarcasm had not diminished with death.

The brawl engulfed the entire establishment. Men in black were tossed left, right, and center as Yang, Anakin, and Obi-Wan danced between wave upon wave of the club's goons from both levels of the club. For any ordinary person, facing such odds would be rightly perceived as insurmountable. For Anakin and Obi-wan, after decades of fighting under odds even worse than where they were now, it was a situation that barely qualified as a "Tuesday". Against their combined martial training, reflexes, and experience, the goons arms proved minimal protection from the world of hurt the two ex-Jedi's were now wailing on them as they charged towards their own humiliating beatdowns.

As for Yang, she had spent the last 3 months training every inch of her body for Beacon, and pitting herself against 4 of the best fighters Patch had to offer. Compared to the caliber of partners she had sparred with, the goons numbers only gave Yang a good warm-up for her to test her skills with. As she bobbed and weaved through the goons, the burst of _Ember Celica's _ shells would send her foes hurtling through everything in their paths, including tables, glass, and bar counters. Anakin maybe the storm, and Obi-Wan it's eye, but Yang was a creature all of her own. A completely untamed force of nature that bulldozed through her opposition.

Just as the goons finally began to thin out, the sounds of automatic gunfire roared to life inside of the club. A hail of dust propelled ammunition showered Anakin and Obi-Wan's position, forcing them to find cover behind the bar. Yang spotted the source almost immediately; apparently the DJ had been packing heat the entire time. Taking advantage of the fact his gunfire was pointed elsewhere, Yang took this as an opportunity to make a mad dash for the DJ's position. By the time the DJ had noticed her charge, it was far too late. His rounds went stray as Yang leapt into his booth, slammed his face into the Mixtable, Before tossing him out onto the dance floor with another burst from _Ember Celica's_ chambers.

For the first time since the fight started, there was quiet inside of the nightclub, with only the music providing any semblance of ambience in the room as the DJ crumbled onto the floor beside two more figures looking to challenge the rabble rousers. She took the break in the action to reload her bracers and observe her new foes. Two twins, about her age and wearing contrasting red and white dresses and an uncomfortable amount of makeup were staring up to her. Each with their own weapons armed and at the ready. The girl in red was armed with what appeared to black steel wrist claws, sharp as knives with edges as crimson as the blood it was prepared to spill. Yang could see she would need to close the range gap to prevent being cut into ribbons. The other in white was armed with what appeared to be bladed heels. The shoes were hardly the most practical choice of footwear for most fighters, but the blades they balanced on could easily result in one's neck getting sliced open if they underestimated their wearer's proficiency. It would take every ounce of her concentration to get ripped to shreds in this fight, or worse lose her head. She grinned in anticipation as a new clip of ammunition landed in her gauntlets, and leaped into the fray once more ammunition blazing as she descended from the second floor.

Anakin did not share Yang's enthusiasm. While the brawler was certainly talented and skilled, she was far from a seasoned warrior, and there was a good chance she was biting off way more than she could chew. He was preparing to flip himself down to the first floor to assist his friend, when he felt a familiar tap on his shoulder, only to see Obi-Wan pointing at something.

"Hate to interrupt your tendency for desperate heroics, but we might have company of our own here."

Looking to where his master was pointing, Anakin found himself staring at a new pair, wearing the familiar suits of the other thugs in the establishment. Unlike the others though, these ones wore black half masks, and instead of axes, they were wielding twin Katanas. The two brothers looked between one another.

"So two guys, two swords a piece. Do we have any?"

"Not one to share between us." Obi-Wan replied, stroking his hair back into place. "Terrible odds, no?"

"Yeah," he said, a small smirk forming on his face "For them."

The goons took exception to that comment, as no sooner had Anakin speak those words, did they come charging at the two with their blades ready to liberate their enemies' heads from their shoulders. Anakin stepped towards the center of the two goons, leaving Obi-Wan bewildered at what was going through Anakin's mind. Before, Anakin would be jumping head long at his opponents, using his athleticism and raw combat talent to blitz with an all out offensive. This Anakin wasn't so much charging as he was leisurely strolling towards his adversaries, as if he was completely unphased by the danger he was placing himself. Had he actually become suicidal since arriving on this world? But that was not the case. As the two thugs prepared to crash their blades on top, Anakin crossed his arms above his head, catching two of the pair's swords between them. Attempting to take advantage of the apparent opening in the former knight's defenses, the pair proceeded to stab at Anakin's ribs with their free arms, only for Anakin to leap over their shoulders, forcing them to drop their other swords to avoid dislocating their shoulders. Grabbing both blades, he tossed one back to his former master, beforehand springing off his free arm, and entering into the classic opening stance of Shien. Quick to respond, Obi-Wan grabbed the wayward blade in hand, and spun himself and his new blade into the classic opening stance of Soresu. The two goons now found themselves caught between two of the finest swordsmen the Jedi Order ever produced, and they had no idea who to focus first.

"What do you suppose our odds are now?" Anakin inquired.

"It's a slight improvement," Obi-wan shrugged nonchalantly.

'_Typical,'_ Anakin thought to himself, as if he were disappointed that he thought his master's response would be anything different.

He didn't give it much thought though as he brought his sword to bear against the larger of the two goons. Obi-Wan quickly followed suit, and leapt over the head of the other masked assailant, drawing the man's attention away from assisting with Anakin. Speaking of his former Padawan, as he himself maintained his own defensive wall, he had the perfect opportunity to observe his apprentice's bladework. Anakin had been, by his own admission, a "try-hard" when it came to lightsaber combat. Even if Anakin wasn't going full contact, he always brought the best of his skills to the table in any engagement that he put himself into. This Anakin wasn't even trying to put effort against his opponent. How did Obi-Wan know this? Because Anakin was relying on the fencing techniques of Makashi to stalwart his opponent.

Anakin hated Makashi.

It wasn't just that it was Dooku's chosen discipline, but the laissez-faire attitude it's users would tend to adopt in combat went against everything Anakin stood for as a duelist. Namely, if he wasn't bulldozing his opponents, he wasn't controlling the fight. Or, at least that had been his doctrine. Clearly he had spent some time to at least nuance this maxim, though how he had missed such a development in his padawan during their last encounter escaped him.

Anakin's reasons for adopting the Way of Ysalmiri in his approach suddenly came to clearide focus, as he lured his opponent into attempting to break his guard with a cross torso cleave. Switching back to his classic form V practice, the former knight returned with a strong horizontal parry of his own, shattering not only his opponent's blade, but his own as well. The goon was awestruck, and no sooner did he register the destruction of his blade did he find his face in contact with his adversary's knee as Anakin came crashing down on top of. As they both landed onto the ground, Anakin took advantage of his superior position to deliver a vicious right hook across the man's jawline, knocking him out cold in the process.

Obi-Wan's fight did not last much longer either, as his opponent attempted to stab kenobi through the throat. A foolish mistake, that Kenobi willingly exploited as he sidestepped the strike, and disarmed the man by liberating his right hand from the rest of his arm. Before the man had the chance to scream in pain, A devastating hook came across the goon's temple, knocking him clean out as well.

"Well, that went well."

"What is it with you and dismembering your opponents?" Anakin inquired half jokingly, having been on the receiving end of Obi-Wan's ending moves once before.

"It's a perfectly valid strategy." He replied wryly as he examined Anakin's own handiwork. "Besides I'm pretty sure your opponent's jaw is dislocated, so I'd be careful of taking the 'High Ground" on this issue."

Anakin knew exactly what he was referencing.

"Yeah, well you and your high ground can stuff it." he bitterly remarked, not wanting to be reminded of that particular incident any further. "Come on we need to help Yang down stairs."

The two didn't even make it to the edge of the balcony when a roaring column of flame appeared in front of them, coupled by a bearded man in a suit vest getting sent through the windows of the establishment. Down below, they could both sense Yang's fury rolling off of her like the volcanoes of Sullust and Mustafar.

"He must have touched her hair." Anakin mused "Really shouldn't have done that."

"I stand corrected."

Anakin looked at him puzzled?

"About what?"

"You don't have the most volatile temper in the Galaxy."

"I can hear you, ya know?" The blonde called out, anger still radiating in her voice.

"Yang? Is that you?"

The banter was cut short, as the trio slowly turned to see a scarlet caped girl in a gothic dress staring up at them through the window where the cantina owner had landed. It was Ruby, and she now had first class sight to view the carnage the three had wrought upon the club.

"Oh sithspit." Anakin muttered.

"H-hey Sis, what's up?" Yang replied, leaping down to meet her little sister at the ground floor.

"What are you and Anakin doing here? And who's that other guy?"

Yang really was lost for words. She really didn't want to have to explain this to Ruby, because it would almost certainly mean explaining this to her Dad later. But lying to her sister at this point would be a lot harder to do convincingly with the number of groaning bodies in the nightclub behind her.

"Ehh, it's a long story." She finally spoke, raising a hand to rub against the back of her head.

This was going to take awhile to explain.

"Well, all things considered, at least it can't get any worse." Obi-Wan dryly remarked.

He just had to be the one to say something like that, didn't he?

No sooner had he spoken those words the sounds of police sirens began blaring through the streets.

"Okay new plan, we are all getting the kark out of here!" Anakin, picked up Ruby over his shoulder as both he and Yang made a sprint back to Bumblebee to escape before the cops arrived.

"Hey put me down!" the poor girl exclaimed, not wanting to be carried in such an embarrassing manner.

"Where are you going?!" Obi-Wan shouted.

"HOME!" his apprentice replied, as they mounted onto the cycle. "DRIVE YANG DRIVE!"

And drive Yang did, as the trio now sped down the Valean streets on a one-way express to Patch. Much like before, Obi-Wan was now left to pick up another one of his apprentice's messes. And for the 237th time, it was to the local authorities. Hopefully now, as they began to exit their squad cars, they would prove to be a bit more reasonable to talk to then the Chandrellan Homeworld Security Squadron had been.

"I suppose you wouldn't believe me if I said this was not my fault."

**As always be sure to leave your thoughts in the review, tell me what you thought, liked, and places to improve in the future. Everyone you guys provide helps me a ton to grow into a better writer. I maybe on a slight hiatus, as my job as a teacher is going through an evaluation period as to whether or not I'll be staying on my school's faculty. However once Spring Break hits, I should know where my employment status lies next semester, and from there I will have a lot more freedom to dedicate to this project. I hope to see you all soon!**


	4. Midnight Heist

Chapter IV: Midnight Heist

"This sucks."

It had been a rough week for the golden brawler known as Yang Xiao Long. Actually, if she was being completely honest, it had been a rough month. Period.

After she and Anakin had gotten home covered in torn clothes and bruises with Ruby in tow, her father nearly had a heart attack and began to bombard the three of them with questions where they had been. He didn't have to wait very long, as the following news report blaring from the television about the brawl at regarding the owner of a popular Valean nightclub and his bodyguards being assaulted by a few teenage delinquents didn't leave much guess work to connect the dots. The fallout had gone as well as it could have. Yang pretty much had no choice but to confess to her sins, and found herself grounded to her room until she left for Beacon. Which as it was now was two days away.

For his part, Anakin had decided the better part of valor for once was discretion, and kept himself out of this; only addressing the enraged father when spoken to. With no small amount of fortune, he had largely escaped the worst of Taiyang's wrath. He did receive a lecture for going to a bar underage with his daughter and letting her get caught up in a brawl with underworld goons, but otherwise had gotten off relatively scott free for returning her daughter in mostly one piece. Anakin had thought to correct the first part of Taiyang's address. but decided this wasn't the time to look a gift tauntaun in the mouth by addressing the man's misconceptions about his age.

It was a strategy that might have saved Yang a few weeks off her punishment had she been wise enough to use it at the time.

"You probably should have thought about that before you wrecked half the cantina by yourself." He commented wryly, knowing full well that she was still quite salty at his comparatively light sentence.

"First off it's a nightclub, not a cantina." She replied flatly, "Second, they earned it by coming on to me! And it's not like you or prince charming over there were doing much to stop the fight."

Anakin rolled his eyes at her feeble attempt to deflect the blame. He had done this song and dance enough with his padawan a lifetime ago to develop a personal strategy guide for dealing with "gifted and rebellious youths".

"Well, **I** was busy fighting those goons upstairs because of **you**, and I think 'Prince Charming', as you put it, is likely pissed at us both for leaving him to deal with the local security forces."

"Oh yeah~. I guess we did do that..." Yang had completely forgotten that detail. In the ensuing chaos, escaping criminal prosecution had kinda taken priority over any collateral repercussions. "Huh."

Now that she thought about it, the guy Anakin was with that evening seemed a little too familiar with him. Anakin really didn't say a lot about his past life. Sure, he had explained some basic stuff, but he didn't really talk a lot about the people that he knew, much less the people he had been close to back then. Judging by what little interaction she had been able to observe between them that night, she could tell there must have been some kind of history between them. However, Anakin had also been recusing himself inside his workshop in the time since their brawl at the nightclub. Even Ruby, for all the time she loved tinkering with Crescent Rose, had begun getting concerned with how much time he had spent in the workshop. Maybe now was a good chance to get some answers as to what was going on.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, did you know that guy by any chance?"

Anakin got very quiet at that question. Yang observed how Anakin's gaze seemed to glaze, as if he was staring out at something he had lost a long time ago. He sighed softly as he began to draw out his response.

"Once... a very long time ago."

Yang was surprised by the uncharacteristic vagueness Anakin spoke with. The man was usually so straightforward, that for him to behave so pensive seemed outright unnatural coming from him. There had to be more to this story.

"Was he at the temple with you? You know, before you got here."

Another moment of silence. Followed by another simple reply.

"Yes."

So her suspicions were correct.

"Do you know how he got-"

"No."

It was the truth too. Anakin had no idea how his former master arrived on Remnant, much less how he ended up in Vale. As a matter of fact, neither of them should be here. They both should have been assimilated into the force the moment they perished. Yet here they were. Reunited. Possibly light years seperated from any former Rebel or Imperial space, with their youth restored. The only remnants that Anakin himself held of the hell he had endured for nearly half a century were his memories. If he had carried those memories, Obi-Wan likely held his own. If so where would that leave them now? Calling each other friends after several decades of animosity between the two was almost certainly out of the question. Even if Anakin had redeemed himself in the eyes of his son, there were plenty of others who would be far less forgiving, and Obi-Wan had more than enough reasons not to. He had destroyed his home at the temple, killed his friends, his "family", and destroyed their bond. That kind of betrayal, no matter how convinced he was that it had been the other way around, was not something that could or should be brushed aside. But Obi-Wan also stayed to help him fight off Junior's men, when he certainly had every reason to ditch him and avoid the situation all together. If they're neither friends nor enemies, what were they now?

As Anakin to mull over the same question he had been in the weeks since their encounter, Yang made a final interjection.

"Hey, you don't have to let me know what's up if you don't wanna."

She paused before continuing.

"But just so you know: If you do, me and Ruby are here for you."

Anakin appreciated the gesture, and nodded a soft confirmation towards her to thank her for her concern. However this was his past and his problems to deal with, not Yang's nor Ruby's. If he would be so fortunate, it would be something they never have to get involved with.

Anakin was about to head back into the garage to continue on another commission, when both he and Yang spotted a small figure in a red cloak attempting to sneak out the back door.

"Ruby where are you going?"

"Huh?" The hooded figure frantically looked around, trying to spot who had caught her attempting to sneak out of the house. Of course it had to be Yang and Anakin.

"Oh, hey you 's a new issue of Guns & Ammo is in store, and I was looking to pick up a copy. Wanna come with me, Yang?"

Yang rolled her head back in frustration.

"Can't, still grounded." She groaned out, realizing she's back to stewing in her own boredom.

"Dad's still pretty mad about last month, huh?" Ruby asked sympathetically.

"About the property damage, or me still looking for Mom?"

Ruby looked at her sister with the blankest stare Anakin had ever seen on the girl. Her response was equally stunted.

"... Yes."

Yang gave her sister a hard glare, as if she was intending to intending to incinerate her little sister for her impudence. No little sister of her's was going to one up her on sass. With that thought in mind, the blonde brawler got up from the couch, walked up to her younger sister, and proceeded to lock the younger girl's head in her arm before giving her a hard knuckle rub against the top of her head with her free hand.

"I'm Soooorry Yanng~!"

"Hmmph, Serves you right for being a smart ass." Yang retorted, as she removed her sister from the headlock she had trapped the poor girl in. "Still can't come with you though."

"Crap. Now how am I going to get to Vale?"

"Couldn't you get your father to take you out?" Anakin pointed out what he thought would be the obvious solution.

"I would, but Dad says the recent string of dust burglaries has got him kinda jumpy about us going into town by ourselves. " Ruby replied with a shrug.

"That sounds kind of silly given you guys seem to regularly plow through grimm like a lawn mower."

"That's what I keep saying, but he says that's totally different!" the redhead cried out, as she flung her arms into the air out of exasperation at her Father's obstinence.

Anakin couldn't say he blamed Taiyang for his paranoia, heaven knows he'd probably feel the same had he been around to see Luke and Leia growing up. However Ruby, much like himself, doesn't really do well with being cooped up. He also needed to go into town for supplies anyway. so if all Ruby needed was some supervision for an errand run, the solution seemed quite obvious.

"I may have an idea…"

* * *

By the time they had arrived at the shop was about to close. Evidently the owner liked to close house early in order to handle dust shipments from the vendors of the Schnee Dust Company. However Ruby was a pretty frequent patron as it seemed, since the old man was more than willing to extend business hours for the redhead and her somewhat strapping friend. As Ruby had already practically bolted for the magazine rack by the time she was let into the store, the owner decided to open a dialogue with Anakin instead. The two chatted about current events, family life (well what technically for family in Anakin's case), and the woes of business ownership. All the while periodically checking over at the music station where Ruby had cubbied herself to listen to some music as she read away.

Within 5 minutes, The girl had already skimmed through the entire magazine, and was now meticulously reading through its contents line by line, trying to absorb as much information from it as possible. Her smile seemed to grow with every paragraph she read until she apparently read something she deemed offensive, possibly in the opinion section of the magazine.

"You only think that because you don't even know how to use a scythe…" She grumbled out of frustration before skipping the page entirely.

Anakin couldn't help but chuckle at that. Long ago, he recalled a young snippy Togruta having that same reaction when reading through combat treatise back at the temple. Always insisting that the masters who wrote them all had an "absurd bias" against her favored reverse grips. It was difficult not to smile at such a memory.

"She kind of reminds me a bit of my own little sister back home."

Though many padawans tended to have perennial bonds with their masters, there was nothing remotely perennial about his relationship with Ahsoka Tano. The two were far too close in age, and the only time he went out of his way to play the "parent figure" was when he and Padme decided to mess with the young girl's mind after the Togruta had made the foolish decision to ditch her studies to crash on him and his beloved wife's private time. Though they were not related by blood, Anakin couldn't see Ahsoka as anything short of the sister he never knew he needed in his life.

The old man caught the twinkle in his eye.

"Was she a firecracker like little Rose there?"

"She was," Anakin replied "Though she had a lot more of Yang's dry sense of humor."

The old man visibly winced, though clearly in jest.

"Ooh I pity you then, sir. I can only imagine the pain you had keeping that one out of trouble."

Anakin chuckled at that remark.

"You have no idea…"

"It sounds like the three of them would get along well if they'd ever meet."

Anakin's grin faltered a little bit at that remark. Such a thing wouldn't be possible now would it? After all, he had played a role in the destruction of his apprentice as well. That fateful day on Malachor...

"Yeah, maybe..."

Before he could be made to elaborate further, Anakin suddenly felt a warning blaring through the Force, just in time to notice the armed goons approaching the store from the windows. Though they all wore dark suits and black masks, he could recognize a few of them as being the folks from the bar he and Yang had trashed earlier in the week. The one man he had not been able to recognize was the man in the cheap white suit. He was definitely young; younger than most of the goons he was accompanying, and not a single strand of his fiery red hair seemed to have lost its luster. His cool jade eyes, posture, and insufferably devilish smirk gave off everything Anakin needed to know about him. He had seen that same expression on the likes of Hondo, Calrissian, Xizor, the Hutts. And other would be daring thieves and conmen. It all spelled the same thing to him; nothing but trouble.

"Alright everyone here knows the drill. This is a stick up, ladies and gentleman, and if you cooperate you might just leave with your heads still attached to your shoulders, and yada-yada-yada."

"Now that's a katana!"

They looked between one another, as if they were silently debating what to do with the red head.

"Take care of the girl." The man in the pinup suit

"I'd advise against this if I were you."

"And you would be?"

"No one you'd have to worry about if you turn around, and walk away with your… borrowed aids."

"And how, pray-tell, would you know that?"

"Because, I beat up half of these guys last month?"

It was at this point Anakin turned around to face the intruders, earning the desired blanched expressions of the goons who clearly had remembered the horrendous beating he had given a good half of them during the brawl at the nightclub. Said goons began to make very big steps in the opposite direction, and were practically bolting by the time they reached the store door."

"Where are you running, you balless buttmunchers?!" The dapper rogue cried out as his entourage seemed to abandon him in a frantic dash out the door; leaving him to weigh out his options on his lonesome.

'_It's cool Roman, It's cool. We can still hold the little girl as a hostage. No matter how tough this guy thinks he is, he won't risk a-"_

Said train of thought was quickly tossed aside, as the goon he had sent to deal with the girl was catapulted through the shop windows.

"Now what was it you were saying about robbing this place?"

Roman couldn't help but cringe as the boy in front of him mocked his efforts to complete his job this evening.

"Grrrr, worth every cent, the lot of you…"

Within seconds

"Well Lancelot, Little Red, it's been a pleasure. But this…" He pointed his cane at one of the dust dispensers, a reticle sight appearing at its foot.

"Is where we part ways."

"NO! YOU'LL BLOW THE WHOLE BLOCK!" The owner screamed.

Having sensed the man's firing intent, Anakin quickly forced the cane down towards the floor, causing them both to blast out the store door with explosive force, with Anakin landing squarely into Ruby on his way out. As the two attempted to collect themselves, Roman made a mad dash for the nearest fire ladder and climbed as fast as he could. Ruby turned to the shopkeeper.

"Hey old man, mind if I go after him?"

The man shook his head, clearly giving her the go ahead.

"Go get 'im little one."

The girl pumped her fist with excitement before running off to pursuit

"Come on, Anakin. We got a bad guy to catch…"

He could have sworn that was something Ahsoka would say in her padawan days.

As Roman reached the top of the rooftop, he pressed into his wrist scroll to signal for an immediate evac. So the job had ended up as a bust, It was… unfortunate to say the least. But he had escaped the brats, and with it any chance of the law catching up with him.

Or so he thought, as an anti-material armor piercing shell whizzed directly past his head. Turning around, his mood turned to decided irritation as he saw both Ruby and Anakin had not been lost. In fact, much to his chagrin, they had chased all the way up to this Oum forsaken rooftop and effectively had him cornered. This just had to be the one job he figured he was good not bringing Neo out for...

"Persistent little shits…" he muttered under his breath. Where the Hell was that woman with-

As if a god had answered his prayers, Roman was greeted to the sight of his partner's VTOL craft emerging from beneath the city skyline, directly in front of him. Anakin bolted to give chase, but was met with a red hand-sized crystal being tossed in his and Ruby's direction as Roman boarded the craft. It was Red dust. And it had landed directly at Ruby's feet.

"End of the line kiddos!" Roman exclaimed as he took aim at the crystal, and Ruby froze momentarily.

Anakin turned and reached through the force to grasp the crystal as Roman pulled the trigger, only for his concentration to be broken by something landing in front of Ruby, and deflecting the damage away from them. As the dust settled, a single woman came into view, with an arcane circle similar to those fantasy cartoons Ruby was so fond of in front. The woman appeared to be middle-aged, though her advancing years had clearly done little to wear either the beauty of her figure or the formidity of her skills. Though she wore civilian wears, and only armed with a mere riding crop, anyone could see the woman possessed an immense level of power and experience behind her. Underestimating her would almost certainly be a lethal mistake.

Roman clearly thought the same. As the woman began her own counterattack against his vehicle, he immediately fled for the cockpit to find reinforcements. The reinforcements, as it happened, was a single woman in a dark red dress. The lights in the vehicle's interior remained dim, and very little of her face could be distinguished. Yet Anakin could make out the woman's eyes. They were a molten amber, as smoldering as the silicate flows of Mustafar.

What followed was a battle of magic Anakin had only read of in the holo novels back at the temple. Each woman cast a flurry flurry of spells, while constantly vying to redirect the power of each other's blows back at one another as hails of violet and crimson traced the night sky. In many respects it was much like a lightsaber duel, but the distance was much more vast, and the only limitations it seemed were the wit and the will of the two to be victorious. However it was becoming abundantly clear that neither had the out right ability to defeat one another, Even as Ruby attempted to lay down suppressive fire with Crescent Rose. As the vehicle prepared to evacuate the scene, the Lady in red cast an explosive spell beneath the trio's feet, forcing both Ruby and their new ally to leap for safety on the far side of the building. Even if their aura could tank the blast, they would be disoriented and likely too damaged to continue the give chase would have been a suicidal effort. Falling back, in this case, was the wisest option.

Anakin, however, had no intention of letting them go so easily.

Once upon a time he would have probably charged headlong towards the ship, slam his lightsaber into it's hull, and then hold on for dear life as he figured out how to take down the time as Vader however had taught him to appreciate more, _nuanced_ methods to finding solutions. For example, instead of chasing a craft down, one merely had to reach out and grab it. And so Anakin did just that as he stretched his hand; using the Force to grasp the retreating hovercraft. Like the hands of a conductor guiding their orchestra through the movement of a symphony, his palm held full control of the craft's motion. No matter how desperately it attempted to throttle, his grip refused to give them an inch. Soon enough his hand began to clench; smoke and sparks began to emerge from both of the hovercraft's engines as it's casing began to buckle. As the engines blew apart under the constricting pressure,the vehicle was torn from the sky and guided to the streets below. Before the woman in glasses attempted to coerce an explanation, Skywalker had already jumped down to where the craft had been parked, Ready to re-engage the escaping duo. As he cut his way through the top hatch with _Lucifer_, he dropped into the craft to discover… Nothing.

They were gone.

No bodies.

No blood.

Nothing.

They had just vanished.

He could still sense their presence was near, but it was as if they had vanished without a knew he was rusty from lack of serious practice, but if he could concentrate and reach out with the Force, maybe he could-

"Are you quite done? I believe we have some important issues to discuss." A demanding voice called from the outside.

Right, there was still someone else with them. Reluctantly, he decided to cut his pursuit short. He had stopped a robbery, and prevented the use of their escape vehicle. He would just have to hope the security forces would be able to do their job and finish chasing down the arrogant ginger and his accomplice. Whoever she was.

As he leaped to climb out of the hole he had cut into the now totalled hovercraft, Ruby had made her way down from the roof to where the woman who had bailed them out of a potentially hairy situation stood on top of the hovercraft's wreckage.

"Uhm excuse me." the young huntress-in-training called out to the woman.

"You're a huntress right?"

The woman looked down at the girl who had spawned this mess, her eyes unreadable.

"Can I have your autograph?!"

* * *

The sounds of a jail door slamming echoed in the interrogation room where the duo now sat.

"Dad's going to kill us when he finds out about this…" Ruby whimpered pitifully. She hadn't so much as received a visit to the principal's office since arriving at Signal, so the idea of being in police custody made her terrified beyond recognition of what her Dad might say about this.

"I think your Dad is the least of our problems." her partner dryly noted,as the woman in the librarian outfit returned to chastise them both once more.

"I hope you both realize how deeply reckless you were!"

Anakin struggled not to comment on how tame this was in comparison to the stuff he used to do. But regaling old war tales from over two decades ago in the body of a nineteen year old boy was hardly an appropriate course of action. He had a sneaking suspicion that the woman in front of them would just take it as a provocation.

"Oh and I'm not just talking about the property damage you're little stunts has caused. Do you have any idea how many people might have been endangered by your reckless pursuit, much less the risk you put yourselves at?! There is a reason your supposed to leave this to the professional huntsman and security!"

"B-but they started it!" Ruby exclaimed, as she botled from her seat pointing behind herself as if the culprits had appeared magically behind them.

"No buts, young lady!"

By the force, even Master Jocasta was not this abrasive in dulling out her moral lectures to her younglings.

"If I had it my way, I would both be sending you both home with pats on the back… and slaps to your wrists!"

Whatever elation Ruby had felt at the beginning of that sentence were quickly dashed as the woman slapped her crop between the two of them for emphasis.

"However,"

She stepped aside as she drawled out that particular word.

" there is someone who would wish to see you both."

As she left the room, a bespecaled man had come to take her place, carrying with him a plate of cookies and a glass of milk. He appeared middle-aged as well though certainly a few years older than the woman who had been previously interrogating the two. His clothes consisted of a dark suit highlight by undershades of viridian and alpine of his vest and undershirt. feature of the man was his silver hair, which along with his attire helped inspire an atmosphere of wisdom and experience beyond what his more youthful features might lend you to believe in.

"Ruby Rose. Anakin Skywalker. It is a pleasure to meet face to face."

His eyes centered on the young girl, as if he were staring at something eerily familiar to him.

"Silver eyes…" He murmured as his focus gravitated towards Ruby, causing the girl to squirm in discomfort.

"I must say you both have created quite the scene tonight. Not to mention tangling with someone of the likes of Roman Torchwick." He continued on as he sat down at the table, placing a plate of cookies on the table for the three of them to share. Ruby, never one to turn away such a gift being placed in front of her, immediately went to the plate as she began to munch away at the sugary treats as rapidly as possible.

"Were we supposed to be scared of him?" Anakin asked, perplexed the guy was actually considered a challenge.

"Most don't make it a point to tangle with armed robbers carrying huntsman graded weapons." The bespeckled man elaborated briefly, as if the point alone was self-evidentiary.

Anakin shrugged indifferently.

"He couldn't have been that impressive if a nobody and a 15 year old girl could cause him to run with his tail between his legs."

The man craned his neck to the side slightly.

"Perhaps so…" the gentleman conceded "Though could you have said the thing about his partner?"

Anakin grew silent at that question. Could he have beaten her? Quite possibly. Could he do so without placing Ruby in jeopardy? That was much less certain. However he was not going to admit such things to a man he had no knowledge of.

Seeing that he was not making any progress along this line of conversation, the bespeckled gentleman chose to change the subject.

"Moving along I couldn't help but notice you both were carrying some quite prominent weapons, Particularly you Miss Rose. A multifunction anti-material rifle and battle Scythe." he remarked, earning a beaming grin from his new target.

"You like Crescent Rose?" Ruby asked eagerly, as she moved to chew through another cookie.

"I'm certainly impressed. But I am more curious as to why on Remnant such a young girl would be carrying one of the most dangerous weapons I've ever seen. The only man I've known to wield such a weapon was a dusty old crow."

"SHash muh uhncle!" She screamed out, her mouth still full of cookies.

"Ruby..." Anakin chided.

She sheepishly gulped down her cookie before continuing.

"Sorry, that's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at the school I go to. Signal Academy."

"Am I to assume he's the one who taught you how to use this thing?"

"Oh yeah! I was completely garbage before he took me under his wing. But now I'm all like 'Wha-chaaa~!"

It took much of the willpower Anakin had developed over his previous life not to visibly cringe as Ruby started flailing her arms around like she was in her beloved martial arts flicks.

"So I see..." The man in glasses responded, clearly a bit more amused by her display then her friend had been.

"Though that does beg the question, why does such an adorable young lady like you wish to be a huntress."

As Ruby began to preamble (more like ramble out) her reasons for pursuing being a huntress, Anakin couldn't help but be reminded of his own reasons for wanting to become a Jedi when he was very little. He had wanted to help others; to save people from what he saw as evil; to be a liberator. Of course by the time he was Ruby's age, things had changed. He had a destiny he was told that he'd fulfill: that he was to become powerful beyond all his peers; that he alone would save the galaxy from the coming darkness. He'd let the pressure to succeed and the promise of his glory get to his head. He only hoped Ruby would have the better sense of head not to repeat such a foley in her journey.

"Do you know who I am, Ruby?" The silver-haired man asked, bringing Anakin once again out of his own self-reflection.

She nodded dutifully.

"You're professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy."

Ozpin, for his part, smiled proudly at her recognition, before laying out his offer.

"How would you like to be my student?"

To say that both Anakin and Ruby's face conveyed their shock at his proposal, would be understating the matter greatly.

"L-like now? B-but I still have two more years at Signal-"

"I will personally work out the details of your transfer."

"I-I'd have to leave all of my friends."

"I'm sure a friendly girl like you can make even more while your under me."

Ruby looked down at the now empty plate of cookies she had left on the table, contemplating her next choice of words.

"W-what if I'm not ready?" She finally croaked out, her uncertainty evident in her voice.

"Ruby, I would not be offering to take you under my wing if I did not believe you were ready. If you don't believe it yourself, trust in the faith I have placed in you."

Ruby went quiet at those words. She had not expected such kind words from the headmaster of one of the most prestigious huntsman academies in all of Remnant. If he had placed such confidence in her abilities, then that would mean...

"So, would you like to join my academy?"

It only took a few seconds for her to formulate a response.

"Y-yes. YesyesyesyesYesYEsYESYESYES! YES~!" She exclaimed jubilantly, as she burst from her chair with raw excitement. This was beyond anything she could ever dream of. Not only was she going to go to her dream academy, she was about to do it two years early! Her eyes darted around the room looking for someone to respond.

"I-I got to call Uncle Qrow and Dad, I-!"

Anakin patted her shoulder, helping her to get someone to focus on.

"Don't sweat it Ruby. Go on ahead, I'll be right behind."

"Thanks Anakin." the young girl responded, giving him a firm embrace before making her way to the door, Screaming the whole way:

"Oh my God, I'm going to BEACON~!"

The two men couldn't help but chuckle at the scene. There was something about the sight of Ruby's youthful optimism, and cheery disposition that had a way of warming even a cynic's heart. Though as with such things, it was only a moment of levity before more pressing matters were to be discussed.

"What about you Mr. Skywalker?"

"What about me?"

"The offer goes to you as well. Admittedly you seem a bit older than most we'd accept entering the academy, but we have had late bloomers enter before, I'm sure we couldn't hurt to have another exception in your case."

A stagnant pause filled the room before Anakin had given his response.

"No."

Ozpin blinked in surprise.

"No?"

This had not been the response he had anticipated.

"I'm sorry. I... appreciate your interest in me as a student, but I don't think I'd have anything to gain from attending your academy."

"Not even the chance to become a huntsman".

"I have no interest in becoming one."

"What would you do then?"

"I am a weaponsmith. I repair and build commissioned weapons for huntsmen. Sometimes I do repairs for the local airservices. I make enough to cover my expenses, and make a small living. It's not an adventurous life nor a lavish one, but it's enough for me."

Anakin had enough practice giving this alabi to Ruby and her family, and it had always worked for him then. However, Ozpin was clearly not so easily convinced. Whatever Anakin might think of the headmaster, the man clearly saw recruiting him as an objective worth pursuing, at least past the initial alabi.

"May I take a look at your eyes, Mr. Skywalker?"

Anakin complied, but not without hesitation. Something about the headmaster's gaze unsettled him greatly. It reminded him too much of Master Yoda's. Sagely, cryptic, and unmeasurable. The kind of gaze that you knew weighed and measured every ounce of you that you carried yet when you stared back, it would give nothing to measure in return.

"For someone so young, your eyes are so old." The headmaster murmured, as if to elicit a response from the now younger Skywalker.

No response came, and the room filled with quiet once more. Neither man spoke as they began to formulate their next choice of words around what others might say death. It was Ozpin who would again break the silence.

"Have you heard of a phoenix, Mr. Skywalker?"

Anakin tilted his head in confusion. Where was the headmaster going with this?

"I'm familiar with the concept, yes."

Ozpin nodded in response, before continuing on...

"They are quite fascinating creatures. It is said they can live on for decades, even centuries. Yet every time it reaches the end of its lifespan it burns itself to pieces; leaving only an egg behind. And if the egg is left to hatch, it returns to life once more, it's lease on life fully renewed. It is because of this trait that they are frequently associated with the many cycles of life. Be it the rise and fall of the sun, the coming and going of the tides, of life and death."

"Perhaps most pertinent to your case is it's association with decay and renewal. You may appear young on the outside, Skywalker, but it is clear to me that your soul has aged quite terribly. I can't imagine the depths of the horrors you have encountered to allow your soul to weather so,"

_'You really couldn't...'_

"However, all I'm asking of you is to accept the chance to become someone who can make a difference in this world."

Anakin's gaze hardened.

"You don't believe I can do that being a blacksmith?"

If Ozpin were annoyed at his obsinance, the headmaster certainly wasn't showing it.

"I believe you can. I also believe you can do more by being who a blacksmith builds for."

Ozpin began to look even more directly at Anakin, ensuring both men had each other's undivided attention.

"You fear failure."

Ozpin didn't so much question, as so much declared what he believed to be Anakin's issue.

"Doesn't everyone?"

The headmaster shook his head, before responding.

"Of course. But it's not just failure you fear, is it? It's the consequences of that failure that terrifies you the most."

He took off his shaded spectacles, and stored them in his breast pocket, before returning his focus to the former knight.

"It's clear to me you have an exceptional gift, young Skywalker. Even though I can't see it tangibly, I can feel it's presence radiating from you like ripples in the water. Ripples that could bring great bounties to the world, but they can also bring terrible calamity to it as well. I can see it in your eyes, you've seen the dangers for yourself, and what you have seen has scarred you terribly."

Ozpin leaned onto the desk as his fingers crossed in front of his face; his gaze never leaving the revived dark lord.

"Allow me to restate my intentions. I'm not looking to recruit you into becoming some hero. I'm looking to show the tremendous good you are, in fact, capable of. Whatever the man you were before I met you today, does not have to be the man you'll become tomorrow. We are all capable of walking down into the darkness, Anakin Skywalker. On paths that may lead us to bring harm to others, and to ourselves as well. However, not all paths are set in stone, and not all are destined for ruin. The question I want you to ask yourself is this: Do you still have the will to choose a path that will allow you to help others to your fullest? A path you must risk falling from to take in order to renew yourself?"

Anakin stared down the man before adjusting his gaze to the table below him. Is this really what he would actually want? Up until this point his answer would still be no, and a part of him still wanted to reject the offer. Yet, as much as he would wish to deny it, he knew deep down that he could never truly accept an idle life. If he were able, he would not have volunteered to run the Boonta Eve race to save a desperate Nubian Queen from being stranded on Tatooine; so many more of his men would have died in the Clone Wars without his presence, and Ahsoka likely would have never survived her trial. Yet it was this very nature that led to his ultimate fall, as his own impulsive pursuit to save Padme resulted not only in her death, but his ultimate fall to the Dark Side. With this nature, he had unleashed untold levels of suffering and anguish upon his Galaxy. It would be so easy to do it again if he accepted such a choice.

It was then he was reminded of the inscription Qui-Gon had left him when he arrived on this world; of his son's words in the throne room. They had both given everything they had to give Anakin a second chance. A chance to repay the damages of his previous life, and the lives he destroyed. The former Sith knew his innocence will never recover from his past actions, but if he could use his next ones to stop others from experiencing what he has, then maybe- just maybe- he can start to make those amends. And if he could do that, then this was a chance he could not afford to waste.

"Have you made your decision?" Ozpin asked, as Anakin finally brought his head up to face him.

"I have…"

* * *

_Greetings everyone! Sorry it took me so long to return with a chapter. I suppose I do owe you some form of explanation. I'm ashamed to admit things on my employment end did not go as smoothly for me as I had hoped. While I was able to complete my first academic term as a teacher, I was not reinvited to rejoin the faculty where I had been teaching for that past year. All has not been lost though, as I've returned back to my hometown and i have been taking classes for graduate school, while I prepare to join the program full time, and I have been working as a grocer part time to help me cover my own lunch fees. It's not been an easy journey, and it's not likely to get easier from here, but I'm at least now feeling stable enough that I can return to my writings once more._

_I also wanted to make something clear before this story goes forward: This will not be a harem fic. While I have nothing against polyamory or those who chose to feature it in their fics, that kind of plot thread I feel would detract from the overall narrative I am trying to create. There will of course be some form of relationship dramas, because what is Star Wars but the soap opera that surrounds the Skywalkers in general. However it will not be something that ends with any of the characters getting multiple girls. If this is what you are looking for, I sincerely apologies, but I do hope that you will continue to have some interest in my writings regardless._

_Until next time,_

_Temple Light_


	5. A Frightening Interlude

**Chapter V: A Frightening Interlude**

"_Mom~!"_

_A boy could be heard echoing through the halls of a villa on the outskirts of Theed. Spring had only arrived just a few short weeks ago, and with it the first bloom of flowers in the family garden. A garden which the matriarch of the house had gone to much labor to nurture herself. Once upon a time she would have left others to handle those sorts of menial tasks for her, but those days had been behind for her some years. In the ten years since becoming a mother, she had learned to take many such tasks onto herself, some more successfully than others. Not that she minded too deeply. After all, she had a reliable, if sometimes headstrong, husband to pitch in where she was less capable. At the moment she had merely retreated herself into the living room to read one of her favorite novels when she heard the boy crying for her attention. As he bolted into the room, she thoughtfully placed a bookmark to tab her progress, before setting the book aside to address her son._

"_Oh goodness, what happened, Luke?" She asked, noting the bruise on his right cheek._

"_Leia's hogging the holoconsole again. she punched me when I wanted to change games!" he complained to his mother._"_Oh grow up, Luke!" Leia called from upstairs, "I'm not playing Z-95 Simulator with you every time you get flight happy!"_

_Oh dear. It was this again… She had warned her husband that they should have bought two consoles to keep the kids from fighting, but no, her husband thought it would be a great opportunity for them to learn how to share, and besides which it would save them money on buying two separate systems. Which might have sounded like responsible reasoning, if he had actually accounted for their wildly differing interests, or the fact he would pocket the money saved to use for his "personal projects". Rolling her eyes internally, she decided to step between the two and defuse the situation._

"_Come on Luke, let's go and get this bruise of yours patched up first before we talk with your sister about her console privileges."_

_Luke nodded dutifully and followed his mother to a nearby utility closet where they would keep some of the family's medical supply. Growing up in a house as large as they had meant that having a single centralized location where the family went to patch up their cuts and bruises wasn't always that practical and convenient, as Luke's parents found out early on. Thankfully, the Naboo intervention and the Clone Wars had given them more than enough experience in the logistics department to come up with a more flexible arrangement._

_As she pulled out the peroxide and dabbed it against the boy's cheek, a thought popped into the mother's head. It seemed a little suspicious that their kids were getting into fights over videogames during the middle of the school week.  
_

_"By the way, Luke, have you gotten your assignments done for school?"_

_She didn't need decades of political experience to recognize his son's flinch._

"_You __**have**_ _finished your homework right?"_

_If her son could sweat blaster bolts at this moment, he probably would at this moment._

"_O-of course Mom, why would you think otherwise?"_

_Her brows arched in that way that Luke recognized as "You're not as clever as you think you are.". Which only meant one thing:_

_His lunch was about to be chewed. So, Luke made the only play he had left, gulp in distress and pray to the Force his mother won't nag his ears off too badly this time._

_Though, as it would happen, the Force seemed to have pity on the boy, as before his mother could utter a syllable the sound of the entrance to their (mostly) humble abode rang through the room. Revealing that the Patriarch of the Skywalker household had returned._

"_Am I interrupting something?" He called out, a sly grin on his face._

"_Father!" Luke cried out as he barged past his mother to greet Anakin with the warmest hug he could muster._

"_Hey there little guy!" Anakin returned the embrace with vigor. "Sorry I took so long. Your uncle was being awfully adamant about that favor he asked me for. And well, you know how he gets about his job."_

_His attention soon turned to his wife as she approached behind their eager son._

"_Luke, sweetie, do you mind giving me and your father some time to ourselves? You can go tell Leia he's home, if you'd like."_

_Luke's face blanched as he nodded. Though still quite young, he was old enough to know what his mother meant when she wanted time with his Father. All things being equal, he could go without seeing his parents making more kissy faces at each other for the rest of his life. And so he made a good note to head back up to his room, and finish that history paper before his Mom decided to ask about it again._

"_So," Anakin drawled as he pulled his beloved wife to him by her waist, "How would my Angel rate her day so far?"_

"_Now that you're back?" She replied, her voice equally coy as she stared back at his sapphire eyes "I'd say it's an eight."_

_he looked at her with faint surprise, though his handsome smile never left his face. _

"_Only an eight? I usually get a nine."  
_

"_You also got the kids fighting over the holoconsole, because __**you**_ _didn't want to buy two of them." She countered with an unamused expression towards her husband._

"_H-hey, come on, now Padme. We both know they have to learn to share at some point."_

_This time it was Anakin's turn to receive the gaze the former Queen had given Luke earlier._

"_Mmm yes, is that why you used the extra money you saved on that decision for a new impulse drive for __**your**_ _airspeeder?"_

_Anakin really didn't have a means to retort that. Padme knew him inside and out. It was one of the reasons they had managed their way through all of these years, but it also meant it was impossible to argue with her. She knew every argument Anakin could and would make for any number of occasions and topics as totally as Obi-wan knew his dueling tactics. The fact his wife was one of the most talented politicians in the galaxy? It certainly didn't do him any favors._

"_I-I- well, um-"_

_Thankfully for Anakin, Padme wasn't actually in the mood to argue with him. She dropped the interrogative expression on her face, and pulled her husband in for a long, silent kiss._

"_I missed you," she admitted quietly, as she rested her head against his chest._

"_Not so much as I have you, Angel."_

_She couldn't stifle the giggle that came with her husband's remark as he continued to gaze at her lovingly._

"_Flattery like that will get you nowhere, Master Skywalker."_

_Oh how she knew what to say to make his grin grow that much wider._

"_It got me the most beautiful woman in the galaxy, didn't it?"_

_She rolled her eyes playfully at that comment._

"_Funny, I thought it was the line about "sand" that did it."_

_Anakin stared at his beloved wife with mock betrayal._

"_You're never going to let me live that one down, are you?"_

_With a coy smile, Padme allowed her delicate Nubian hands to clasp at his face as she brought it down to stare at his piercing blue eyes._

"_Nope! I'm afraid that's your cross to bear, my beloved."_

_The two shared a giggle at their mock argument; bringing their faces together to share yet another kiss. Only to be interrupted by the sound of Luke calling for them from the children's room. The two jokingly rolled their eyes together, and proceeded upstairs to where Luke had last been heard. When the door opened, the jubilation they had shared in had frozen out as Anakin felt his stomach flip._

_Instead of Luke and Leia's room, he saw one of the many corridors of the Jedi Temple. Bodies littered the floor with the corpses of clone troopers and Jedi alike, with the stench of blaster wounds, cauterized flesh, and decay surrounding them both. The catwalks along the upper levels had partially collapsed, all the windows had been blown out, and the various columns and statues that used to decorate the pathway were in a similar state of destruction and disarray. Padme, to her credit, attempted to put on her brave face, but she was visibly pail as she stared at the sight before him, and Anakin felt a cold sweat break under his clothes. This. This was impossible. How in the Galaxy-_

_Before Anakin could process what was before him, a voice cried out from beyond._

"_Father!" the voice screamed, Before the sickening cackle of electricity filled the room._

"_Luke! Leia!" Anakin cried as he made haste down the halls of the Temple, not even thinking to wait for his wife before running in to save his children. He had been too late to save his own mother, he wouldn't be too late to save his children. He couldn't be too late. He wouldn't let himself be too late. Not after everything that he and Padme have gone through._

_Unfortunately the harrowing of Anakin Skywalker had only just begun._

_As Anakin charged deeper into the temple, he found himself in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, and the stench of death had only worsened. The count of decaying bodies only seemed to have doubled, with even more showing the signs of saber wounds only possible by someone well-trained in the Jedi arts. As disturbing as those revelations were, they paled in comparison to the sight staring before him. At the archway leading to one of the main fountains, was Leia. Her delicate body, riddled with blaster holes and electrocution marks, hanging from a noose like a twisted puppet from one of the many Assari trees that decorated the room._

_A blood curdling scream erupted from the young father as he tossed his lightsaber to remove his daughter from her suspension. Her limp form crashed into his arms as he dashed to her, and Anakin was powerless to do anything else for her. Her body had long gone cold, and the look of fear in her open eyes showed she hadn't even been allowed to perish peacefully. His little princess had died alone, terrified, and helpless to stop what was happening to her. Anakin cried for Leia's name, pleading with the Force to bring her back at any cost to himself. But the Force never had been in the mood to barter with him: not once in his life. He was unable to stop his tears and his body's convulsions as he brought his one and only daughter near him, begging her to forgive him. As he grieved for his daughter, a voice called out through the Force, a voice he knew all to well. He didn't want to leave Leia; not in this state. But if there was even a tiny sliver of hope that he could prevent her brother from sharing the same fate-_

_It was all the motivation Anakin needed to gently drop his daughter down and close her eyes, before running towards the elevators. The voice had called from the Council room. It made sense. In the event of an invasion or other emergency scenario, the protocol was for the younglings to be escorted into and hidden along the central spire of the Jedi Temple. And the path leading to the council's room would be among the most heavily defended areas of the Building. The Jedi had centuries to come up with means to defeat an invasion of their home like Darth Malgus had led, but it had clearly not been enough to stop the damage he had seen thus far. Still it was the only source of hope he had left that maybe, just maybe, enough time was bought that Luke would make it out of this. Not unscathed, but alive._

_Furiously he punched the controls of the elevator leading up to the council room, and rapidly pressed the close door button in a feeble effort to get it to shut faster. Every second he wasted, was another second that might be Luke's last. It made the seconds leading up to the top of the spire all the more painful and infuriating for him to endure. His emotions were teetering at the breaking point, and the only thing holding him together was-_

_The door opened and Anakin bolted as quickly as he could before breaking down the barricaded door that led to the council room. Inside the room the floor was littered with the body of younglings, smoke trailing from them where a lightsaber had been used to gut them like fish. Only one of the younglings had survived, and he was currently being held up in the air by the assailant; Crimson blade held low. Anakin's eyed glowered with incandescent anger. For the assailant wasn't merely holding any child. It was Luke they were holding, while donning Vader's armor. His armor. This person's very presence was mocking him with his greatest mistake, and Anakin had grown more than tired of this sick jest._

"_I will only ask one last time, boy: where is Skywalker?!" The imposter roared, his true voice masked behind his vocator._

"_Right behind you!" Anakin roared with his anger, as the hiss of his azure blade igniting drew the false Vader's attention. _

_Luke dropped to the floor, as Vader motioned to bring his blade to defense. A furious exchange of blows erupted as their blades collided, with neither able to gain the upper hand on one another. Whoever was behind this mask, knew each and every one of Anakin's movements and tactics. No matter what feint he pulled, no matter how well timed his riposte was, he was unable to land even a glancing blow against the man impersonating the dark lord. _

_Yet by that same token neither could Vader. The former knight knew Vader's tricks just as well, and what's more he knew what weakness existed in that armor that he could exploit. All he needed was a single opening; one long enough that his better speed could break through the imposter's defenses. _

_As Vader lunged forward to stab, he found his opening. _

_Stepping into the attack, Anakin allowed the crimson blade to pass his defense to within mere inches from piercing his tunic, before batting it aside. Spinning with the motion he raised his own blade to jam Vader's own for as long as possible, before unleashing it's fury to the back of Vader's neck._

_It was a clean strike, and as the imposter of the dark lord's head rolled to the floor, Anakin wasted no time to rush towards his son. Relief flooded into him as he noticed that Luke had little in the way of injuries besides a few cuts and bruises._

"_Luke! Are you okay?!" Anakin cried out as he pulled his son into a tight embrace._

"_Father,-" the boy croaked out, his voice drained of emotion,_

"_It's okay Luke! You're safe now! Oh thank the Force you're alright!"_

"_What have you done, Father?"_

_Anakin looked at his son in perplexity. What in the Galaxy was he talking about, he just saved him from some homicidal madman who just stormed the temple! Who had hung his daughter like a life day ornament! Frankly decapitating the man was a mercy compared to what he actually deserved._

"_Why did you kill them? They were our friends…"_

_L-Luke couldn't mean..._

"_Luke that wasn't me-"_"_But it was you who raided this temple's hallowed ground and razed it's splendors to cinders. Was it not, Lord Vader?…"_

_A voice shot from behind Father and Son; a voice ancient, serpentine, and sinister._

_His blood ran cold. He knew that voice all too well…_

"_No, that's impossible!"_

_It was Palpatine, just as he had remembered him in his final moments, his fingers still sparking with electricity._

"_Did I not tell you, my boy? the Dark Side is a pathway to many abilities deemed unnatural by the Jedi."_

"_You're not real!" Anakin roared in anger and disbelief, as the dark lord gazed upon him with his serpentine smile._

"_Oh I hate to inform you I am very real, Lord Vader. Just as the consequences of your actions have been."_

"_I didn't murder my children!"_

"_Not yours, but how many others' children have you slaughtered?" Palpatine taunted, "Though tell me Lord Vader, did the experience of sucking the life out of those little ones not make you feel powerful? Did it not make you feel… alive?"_

"_Shut up!" Anakin screamed as he brought his blade to cleave his former master in half, only to be frozen in place instead by Sideous's powers. _

_A cold sweat broke across the Chosen One's face as he was now powerless to move against Palpatine's command._

"_You never learned to think beyond your lightsaber, you insolent brat!" The Sith Lord spat, "Always reaching first for brutish strength, as if that alone would save you from those far smarter and capable than yourself. If you were a 'True Sith', it would have been almost admirable. Instead you let your sentimentality cloud your judgement, and make you soft!" _

_Palpatine lent Anakin a mocking smirk, as he continued to undress his former apprentice pride._

"_You weren't even able to beat me by your own power! All you accomplished was catching an old man off guard, and you couldn't even survive that."_

_Anakin's muscles twitched with rage as they strained to break Palpatine's grasp._

"_I believed in you as a father, and you took my family away from me!" he roared, only to be met by his master's sarcastic chuckle._

"_You took them away yourself, Lord Vader!"_

" _Liar!" The young father screamed, his focus now solely focused on the man who had destroyed so much of his life._

"_The only liar in this room is you, my old friend!" The Sith retorted, "Had I forced you to kill all those children, those "seperatist leaders", or for you to strangle your own wife? No, I didn't have to. You chose to do those things all by yourself."_

"_You promised you could save her!"_

_Anakin could feel his body slowly slipping through Palpatine's grasp, as his anger swelled._

"_I promised you the power to save her, is it my fault you destroyed her to get it?"_

"_Y-you knew what would happen! Didn't you?!"_

_Palpatine merely shrugged at the accusation._

"_Perhaps I did. Perhaps I didn't. Does it truly matter in the end?"_

_How dare this man mock him like this? After everything the man who crowned himself an Emperor had stolen from him: His family, his life, his free will. Anakin's rage was bordering on incandescent, and he nearly felt himself free of Palpatine's grasp. Not that the old man seemed to notice, or truly care. If he had he might not have turned away from the older Skywalker, and pressed on with what he said next._

"_I was telling you the truth, there was no saving her after what you had done, I assure you of that. I will admit though, had I not discovered your children's survival, I'd have said syphoning her life force from whatever backwater world she had ended up on to sustain you on that operating table was one of the greatest achievements of my ability."_

_Anakin felt something in him snap at that comment._

"_What did you say?" He snarled, his voice barely more audible than a whisper._

"_It's poetic isn't it, Lord Vader? Even in spite of your betrayal, she had given what little life she had left in her tiny body so that you could remain amongst the living. Is there no truer expression of love, my old friend?"_

_It was at that moment Anakin's anger boiled over, and Palpatine's restraints shattered. This time he would make sure Palpatine paid in full, and would __**never **__come back._

_ The Sith lord had little time to react as the azure blade cut into his torso. Only the person behind the robes was no longer Palpatine, but a figure much smaller, much younger. As the body turned over as it fell, All the molten rage in Anakin's veins disappeared, and instead the cold sensation of dread and horror filled him._

_It wasn't Palpatine he had struck, but his one and only son._

"_Luke!"_

_Anakin had long tossed his lightsaber aside as he clutched Luke in his now armored arms. He could feel the boy's presence fading rapidly into the force, and all he could do was comfort his child as Luke's life slipped away before his eyes._

"_No, no, no, no! Stay with me, Luke! Don't you dare die on me!"_

_Anakin's eyes widened as he felt Luke's small hands touch his face one last time._

"_I-I forgive you, Father. Y-y-you're a g-goo-"_

_The boy didn't have any strength left, and as his eyes drew to close, the hand Luke had raised to his father's face dropped to his side, and rose no more._

"_No, please stay with me, Luke! Luke Please! Don't Go! Your mother needs you! I NEED YOU! PLEASE! D-don't-" Anakin cried out hysterically, but it was already too late. Luke was gone, and there was no returning him back._

_So distraught with grief was he that he did not even notice the shift in his voice's pitch as his pleadings continued and remained unanswered. Nor did he notice the latest figure to approach him._

"_This is who you truly are, Vader. Who you've always been. Who you always will be. Did you really think one moment of piety has rendered your enitre life's legacy moot?"_

_Anakin turned to see Palpatine standing before him once again with a sadistic smile, as if he had not just been standing where Luke had been just a few moments prior._

"_Once a Sith you become, always a Sith you will be! You'd be wise to remember this as who you are, Lord Vader. You cannot run from who you are!"_

"_I am no Sith! I'm-"_

_As Anakin rose to his feet he realized something was off about his voice. It was deeper; more mechanical than it should be. His vision had quite literally gone red as a familiar heads-up-display protruded his vision. His joints ached with a familiar ache that accompanied the prosthetics that didn't make up his right arm. With panic, he reached for his face, only for his worst fears to be confirmed. It wasn't his flesh and skin but a helmet. Vader's Helmet. The infernal sound of his suit's respirator and Palpatine's mocking laughter filled his hearing as his legs gave out from beneath him._

"_No, it can't be! No! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

* * *

Anakin's eyes burst open as his body exploded up from his bed. His breath was heavy and labored; beads of sweat trickled down his face as he attempted to gain his bearings. This was not the nightmarish dreamscape his mind had conjured. He was in his room in the Xiao-Long residence. Luke was not a child dying in his arms. He was a full-fledged Jedi Knight, no doubt leading the rebellion in restoring the Republic from the front-line as before. Palpatine was not there to taunt him and remind him of his failures, he had already seen to it that no one would ever know of that monster again.

And he was no longer in that Force-damned forsaken armor. No vocator, no respirator that would keep him awake at night. No scars to remind him of what he had lost. There was nothing left of Vader on his person, or in his surroundings, save for the memories of a life now left behind. He was no Sith… Not now. Not ever again.

Right?

Bleakly he moved himself over to observe the date on his scroll. Observing through it's "family" filter, he noted the Bolded font on today's itinerary: "Beacon-fall". The start of their journey to Vale's most prestigious combat academy had arrived. Anakin still had mixed feelings about the arrangement forced upon on him. If he was being honest with himself, there wasn't a whole lot of benefit to himself in going to this school, save for having a more formal setting in which to learn about the history and culture of the planet. Beacon might have been a controlled environment, but then again so was the Jedi Temple. Despite all of the differences in rules and by-laws from the Order, the huntsmen society still served a similar role as the guardians and protectorate of the world he now inhabited. Beacon, at it's core, existed to prepare such defenders. Anakin had been a naïve child when he had joined the Order, too young to appreciate the burden placed on him at that moment. He was no longer so innocuous. He knew that burden now better than any attendee of that academy, and it's weight filled with him with quiet but palpable dread.

He wasn't truly sure if he was prepared to carry such a burden. As much as his time with his makeshift family has helped him to recover his still fragile mental state, a few months of relative peace were not nearly enough to undue decades of psychological trauma. There was a good possibility that within weeks of his arrival, he could snap back to that dark place he was before. If he allowed that to happen, if he spiraled back into the abyss, there would be no one who could stop him. Obi-wan could no longer best him, and Luke was no longer to keep him from doing the worst he was capable of. The risk was terrifying; so much so that he had even contemplated cancelling his air-fare and reneging his promise to Ozpin. It wouldn't have been the first time he had "altered" his agreements.

However it would also make him a liar, and Anakin had never sat right with lies. He was wary of it as a Jedi, he tolerated it as a means to an end as Vader, and now, he was tired of dealing in deception. He had promised himself that this life time, he would live the most honest life he was capable of living, and that started with keeping his promises. If he said he would be at Beacon, he will be at Beacon.

Besides, if nothing else, it would help help him keep an eye on the two sisters while they attended, and he was sure Taiyang and Qrow would appreciate that someone was looking out for the girls in their place.

Getting up from his bed, he decided to first freshen himself up with a shower, organize the tools he needed to bring, and pack a small set of clothes and his weapons. After all it'd be a bad idea to be unprepared for his first day of school. 

* * *

_Author's Note: Wow it's been some months, no? Sorry it took so long to write this chapter. As you can imagine there has been an inordinate amount of chaos we've all had to wade through the past few months, but I have made it thus far and I've managed to complete a new chapter. Believe it or not this dream sequence was actually meant to only be a small introductory part of our first introduction to Beacon, but it kind of evolved into a beast unto itself. As the details kept pouring in, I kind of realized that our intro to the rest of the cast was likely going to have to wait, otherwise it would take too long to publish this chapter, and the end result would be extremely bloated. I wanted this dream sequence to give us a vivid framework for were Anakin's current state of mind lies. I've alluded to his guilt complex somewhat in the previous chapters, but I don't think I've ever been particularly explicit to the extent Anakin's still working through dealing with his inner demons. I thought it was important to demonstrate that while Anakin has been recovering since arriving on Remnant, but he's still very much vulnerable. He's a man who has a life time of moral crimes weighing on his conscious along with the memories of his physical and psychological trauma. Expecting him to make a full rebound to the man we saw in the Prequels and The Clone Wars isn't realistic, or makes for interesting reading. Rather I hope to showcase the ups and downs of this journey, and this chapter is to help set the ground for the work ahead. _

_Also I recognize that some of the transitions in the sequence might come across as a little jarring, but I assure you some of that is intentional. Dreams, even lucid ones, can be surprisingly fickle in terms of continuity. They are in essence projections created by our brain as we sleep mixed with what little light seeps through our sleeping eyes. Therefore transitions between locations and events can sometimes jam and collide with one another. I used that concept to help shape Anakin's journey through out the sequence, from the idyllic family life he desires into the rather macabre imagery we see in the ruins of the Jedi Temple. This is the first time I've ever written any kind of horror sequence before, and I hope that I have done the scene and your continued commitment to my story justice. I am currently working on Chapter VI right now and I hope to be able to release it to you all in a few weeks time, if things line up well. Until then, safe travels on your journey._


End file.
